


The Emon Renaissance Faire (And the Assholes Who Work There)

by inadistantworld



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe- Ren Faire, Briarwood Arc I Guess, Everyone works at a Ren Faire, F/M, Karaoke, Love Confessions, Medium Burn, Mutual Pining, background Vax/Keyleth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-02 13:41:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 32,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11510583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inadistantworld/pseuds/inadistantworld
Summary: When they first started working together management said, "Oh fuck yeah." When they started getting to know each other management said, "Oh fuck, wait." When they became family management just said, "Fuck."The Emon Renaissance Faire is the largest of its kind in Tal'Dorei, and these assholes all work there. They also play DnD on Thursdays.All the hours they aren't playing are hours where Percy is calmly talking himself out of confessing everything to Vex right then and there. Vex spends all those hours pretending she has no idea what her brother means by "tell him what you're feeling".The season is picking up, their friendship is better than ever, but the gang, AKA The Shits, AKA Vox Machina (only on Thursdays though), can't go very long without shit hitting the fan. And it's probably going to be their fault.





	1. Reason Number 1 (The Most Important)

**Author's Note:**

> You can take the gang out of the Renaissance but you can't take the Renaissance out of the gang.  
> No editing, who has that kind of patience?  
> I'm awful at titles but I figure the more words it has the better the chance of one or two not being shitty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also after rereading this for the first time in a while I wamna clear up Kash and Zarha are not dating in this fic, she calls him sweetheart but it's in the same way Vex calls everyone darling.

It had been a little over a year since they all met and they were gearing up for the busy part of the season, something they’d been waiting for since it ended. They had a few times where it picked up, the Winter’s Crest had been insanely busy, but that was only for about two weeks before it died down again. This was when things would be good for a few months. This was when they really got to show off.

They had just shown up and were finishing helping each other get ready. Vax was adjusting Keyleth’s antlers for her, both of them with those dopey looks in their eyes. Grog was kneeling beside Pike as she helped finish his face paint (he called it war paint but whenever he needed more he had to look up face paint, so decide for yourself). Scanlan was trying to convince Grog to let him do it again, Grog almost forgot the last time he did Scanlan drew a giant dick and Pike had to make it family friendly again. It was not exactly easy. Percy was shouldering his cloak, long and bright blue with gorgeous detail. He didn’t tell the others but he named it. They didn’t tell him but they named a lot of their things too. (They did however tell a lot of children the names.)

And Vex was adjusting her belts and in doing so pulled the fur she wore out from under the belt. When she caught Percy staring she smirked playfully, “Are you going to just stand there and watch me struggle or do you plan on helping any time soon?”

Percy blinked in surprise and stepped forward, “I didn’t want to assume you needed my help,” he said as he took the now loose fur in his hand. He set it on her shoulder better and grabbed the front end and took one deep breath before sliding his hand (and the fur of course, though that was less interesting) along her torso. When he reached the belt he used two fingers of his free hand to pull at the belt and make room for him to tuck the fur in. The entire time she made dangerous eye contact with him and he prayed his ears weren’t as red as he thought they’d be, it was so easy to tell when they were with hair as white as his.

He grabbed her shoulders and spun her around a little more forcefully than he anticipated in his sudden nervousness. Vex chuckled as he began repeating the process to the back of the belt, “You’re rougher than I thought you would be, Percy,” she teased.

“I can’t say I hear that very often,” he tugged at the fur once to make sure it stayed in place.

“Do people usually think you’ll be aggressive or are you normally more…” she turned around and eyed him up and down with that damned smirk that worked so well for her, “submissive?”

He licked his lips without even realizing, though she very much noticed, “I suppose I tend to let others take the lead.”

“Glad to know I’ve been imagining that right this whole time.” She winked and stepped away from him, looking herself over in the mirror and finishing some minor adjustments.

“Hello hello my dearest friends, are we ready to get this show on the road?” Gilmore’s unmistakable voice came from the doorway and everyone turned to see their purple robed friend. He had his hair pulled back, gold earrings and medallions and a ring on almost every finger.

“It’s the first big weekend of the season, I hope we’re ready. I’d rather not get fucked in the ass today,” Scanlan pulled his hair back into his own ponytail.

“Don’t knock it ‘til you try it,” Gilmore winked and clapped his hands together, “Remember everyone, big smiles and direct everyone towards Gilmore’s Glorious Goods. Oh, and Vex, Uriel wanted me to remind you the tournament is at noon today, don’t be late.”

“I was late twice and let me tell you, it was very very worth it,” the glint in her eye made Percy wonder if it was sex related or money related. Percy had a feeling it was money.

“Well, today is a big day so do try and save it for later. I’ll see you all later, Good luck, good luck, and remember—”

“Make sure to visit Gilmore’s Glorious Goods!” They all chanted back, laughing and smiling.

There were a few last minute touch ups and Keyleth led a deep breathing exercise that consisted mostly of everyone laughing. Then they walked out.

The Emon Renaissance Faire, one of a handful open year round and the largest one in the country. And they were in the heart of all of it.

“On three, The Shits,” Scanlan said, holding his hand out and using a throwback to when they first started becoming friends.

Hands flew on top of his, “One!” Hands bounced in front of them. “Two!” This time rising a little higher. “Three!” A more dramatic movement again. “The Shits!” Hands flew into the air and other employees looked at them, obviously disappointed.

It was 8 AM, only another hour before they opened and the swarm began. “I’ll make my way to your section around 11,” Scanlan nodded to Vax as he spoke. They were a deadly duo. Outside of the throwing knives demos and competitions Vax put his old skills to work handling a few of the games. Taking money was second nature to him, convincing people to hand it over was Scanlan’s first. Together they made an extremely dangerous team, Vax using his skill to show how simple the game should be, Scanlan wooing people over to try it, convincing parents and writing songs for those who succeeded or lost.

Scanlan was a wandering musician and general entertainer on Faire grounds, accepting tips and ladies’ phone numbers. He was one of the best at improv on site, he could make up a song for any person or situation at the drop of a hat. And it helped that he could play a number of instruments flawlessly, though his flute was by far his best.

“Sounds good. I’m talking to Kash to see if he can cover me during Vex’s tournament so he’ll need the help. I tried to ask Zahra, but she wanted to see Vex shoot, Allura is handling her own thing, and Kima downright refused, so he was kind of all that was left. Just. You know. Keep an eye on him.” Vax seemed a little worried.

Scanlan winked, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he doesn’t go flirting with all the other boys.”

“Good, that was my main fear.” Vax’s face was dead serious but everyone knew that he could care less and snickers rose up from the group.

Sometimes Vax had a hard time telling if Scanlan was joking about Kash or serious. He could be so hard to read sometimes. “Oh I know. But you should make your move soon, a man like that won’t wait around forever.”

“If only I had the courage.”

“I’ll put a good word in for you.” Scanlan winked, not making it any more obvious to tell if he was serious or not.

“Thanks Scanlan.”

“No problem.”

Vex stood beside Percy and asked, “Will I see you in the audience today?”

“Don’t you always?” He asked. His sister begrudgingly took over for an hour or so every time Vex was shooting so he could go. Cassandra begged him to just tell her he loved her already but Percy always acted like he had no idea what she was talking about. They worked together and Vex was far too good for him. He could list twenty-eight reasons why it was a terrible idea to even think of Vex like that.

No, really, he had a list in the journal he kept in his inside coat pocket that he could refer to whenever he started thinking about her like that. He had the list mostly memorized.

“Get a spot close by; I don’t want to have to find someone else to flirt with.”

Percy would need to review his list again after they parted ways.

Outside of great displays of skill, Vex taught kids how to use bows and arrows. The simple way of course, nothing major, but she enjoyed it immensely and so did the children.

Grog was one of the resident beasts. Pure strength and fighting spirit. And there were full on drag out wrestling matches and the occasional fist fight. None of that staged shit put on at other Faires. Grog refused to do anything less than real; luckily Pike was always there to call it before it got too out of hand.

She was one of the First Aid workers on site. In full plate mail. And on days where it was slow or they were overstaffed in the First Aid building, she and Grog could be found wandering the area doing their own feats of strength. Boulder lifting, boulder breaking, lifting fair maidens and the like.

Keyleth ran a small but popular shop. There were pressed flowers in handmade frames, bows, children’s swords and shields made of wood, jewelry boxes, and other lovely wood items. She also made her own antlers out of wood. All of Vox Machina (the name of their DnD party and what they secretly called themselves in real life too) had tried them on at least once. All of them claiming that they must have been made with magic because they were unnaturally light. Keyleth never confirmed or denied that.

Percy’s shop was connected to Keyleth’s and they often collaborated on projects. That was one of the nice things about having a full time Faire, permanent buildings. Percy worked on mechanical trinkets, sold some curiosities, odds and ends that never failed to make people stop and admire them, and a handful of very expensive and extremely impressive mock guns. Intricate and old timey designs for the steampunk heart in every faire goer. He carried one on his hip whenever in costume and more often than not a very large one across his back who he shamelessly named Bad News.

And that only left Matt. Primarily an actor, handling kids’ shows to more risqué at night shows (usually dirty comedies), but also a general floater. Percy had seen him handling the blacksmith’s forge a number of times for one thing. Every position he took had a new voice to it. Percy’s favorite days were when Matt was covering everyone’s breaks and he kept finding the same guests everywhere he went and pretended he hadn’t seen them an hour ago and that he was someone completely different.

Conversations usually went a little like this:

            “Weren’t you just over at the hat shop?”

            Usually in a very thick accent that was completely different than the one he had at the hat             shop, “Hat shop? No, believe yer mistaken. I work ‘ere, selling swords,” with a huge gesture to the swords behind him.

            The guests would laugh a little, “Do you cover everyone on their breaks?”

            Matt would look at them like they were crazy, “No, I work ‘ere, with the swords.”

            “Oh, well someone looks very similar over at the hats then. A brother perhaps?”

            “Only child.”

And after that the guests had no idea what to do. The best part was if there was a kid around Matt would wink when the parents turned away and would use his previous accent to let the kid in on the secret.

And there were others. Kashaw, Zahra, Kerrick, Allura, Kima, Gilmore, and so many others who worked around them. And so many others they didn’t even know the names of. This job felt like its own world. And they loved every second.

Maybe that’s why they started a DnD campaign five months ago, they wanted to spend more time in this kind of world.

“Sure, just stand in the middle of the fucking path and look around like it’s your first day, it’s not like anyone has anywhere else to go.” Percy chuckled, that voice could only belong to one man.

“Come now, sweetheart, isn’t it nice how much they love their jobs?” Zahra’s voice always had a smirk in it.

“Darling! Oh so good to see you, how was your vacation?” Vex left Percy’s side and Keyleth hooked her arm through his and they bid everyone goodbye and began walking toward their shop.

“You’re going to see her shoot I assume,” Keyleth asked everyday with her idea of subtly.

“I always do. I like cheering her on.”

“She likes when you cheer her on. There was this one time when you didn’t go and she wouldn’t stop telling me how irritating it was not to have you out there for her and that’s why she lost.”

Percy chuckled, remembering all of the chest poking and pouting from that day, “Yes, and now I don’t miss them anymore.”

“I’m sure that’s the only reason.”

“I was thinking about that thing we talked about, I think I found a way to stop the clicking when it moves.” It wasn’t a smooth change of topic, but it did capture Keyleth’s attention. She knew he was avoiding talking about it, he did that every morning, and every morning she let him. He’d talk when he was ready.

 

Vex started her morning on the other side of the grounds in the kids’ and games area. Close to Vax so they still saw each other often enough. Though today she wasn’t so happy about that, he was acting like a shit today.

“I’ve known you since you were a baby, you can’t hide anything from me.”

“Well it’s good I’m not hiding anything from you,” Vex shifted the quiver on her back.

“The longer you avoid admitting your feelings for him the shittier you’re going to feel. You don’t get much time in this world, does it make sense to keep holding back like this?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she huffed and took the upcoming split in their paths as her escape, “I have to go make sure everything is set up for the kids, the last thing we need is the archery falling apart.”

Vax didn’t try and get her to stay. He did sneak behind a building and discreetly pull his phone out, strictly against employee rules, and texted Keyleth.

**Vax: still wont talk to him. dnd on thursday, maybe push their characters together?**

He didn’t expect a text back until her break, every time she tried to sneakily text him back she was caught and they’d decided long ago to maybe just wait instead.

 

It was decided over Keyleth’s break that they couldn’t push Percy’s character towards Vex’s because Vex’s and Grog’s had been dancing around getting involved and it didn’t fit into their characters for Percy’s and Vex’s to date. Instead they would have to figure something else out. Luckily they had a master of plotting and scheming. Unfortunately he wasn’t exactly totally aware of the mutual pining going on between the two morons.

Scanlan Shorthalt was the perfect mind to trick the two into admitting things. He was also the one who could totally blow it.

He and Keyleth would have to talk more about it later and figure out what was the best option.

 

The largest weekend event was The Tournament. It was archery, jousts, sword fights, and a number of other things. It took hours and was never staged, though it there were some aspects that were played up for the crowds. Every now and then Vex liked to masquerade as a man and after her almost guaranteed victory, would throw her hood back and show herself as a woman. And the crowd would go crazy.

Of course she didn’t want to do it every day. And the days she didn’t Percy liked much better. Not because he didn’t like her as a man (in fact at first he’d been a little interested in Vax), nor because he didn’t like the show she put on as a man. She played it quite well in her mysterious Robin Hood way.

No, he liked it better when she strode onto the field, long hair in a thick braid, a smirk on her lips, dark eyes scanning the crowd. Scanning for him. He was always pressed against the short, wooden fence that held back the mass of people, as close to her as he could get. And his white hair always made him easy to spot.

Something they did to play up the game and get everyone excited was each participant carried a gift for a lucky person in the audience. Everyone had their own style, a flower for a little girl, for the elderly grandmother, the prettiest woman with an added wink and awful line, sometimes a cheap necklace or bracelet that looked lovely, once for mother’s day he saw a knight in the joust give a mother a simple, but nice tiara.

Vex’s type was Percy.

She locked eyes with him and walked over to him, her cloak just barely brushing the ground as she did so, so confident in her steps. “Have you come to cheer me on, darling?”

“I’ve already put money on you,” he leaned forward on the fence. The others had already given their flowers and were setting up. Vex always liked to take her time. She liked when people watched her flirt with him.

“You’re a smart boy, I’m the one to watch.”

He liked it too.

“Don’t worry, I’m quite aware,” he exaggerated looking her up and down.

“It is tradition to give the most beautiful person we see a flower,” she reached back to her quiver and when she held her hand out to Percy there was a beautiful dark red rose. She had told him once that she picks her own every day, spending her time looking for the most perfect one. She never said ‘the most perfect one to give to him’, but he liked to think that was why.

Quiet gasps, excited noises of those around him. He smirked and reached out, plucking it from her fingers, and looked it over, not saying anything witty or flirty yet. Vex quirked an eyebrow, he didn’t normally spend this long looking at it. A hush fell over the crowd and a few of Vex’s opponents and friends looked over their shoulders to see what the wait was about.

“I wish to give you something for luck as well. I’m afraid however that I came unprepared for such a lovely woman to speak to me.”

“I don’t need lucky tokens, dear, only your voice to cheer me on.” She was laying it on thick today. He could do that too.

He tucked the rose into his front pocket, which was surprisingly deep so the flower didn’t look too ridiculous. “I must insist, I could not bear to see you lose knowing I could have given you something to aid you. Please,” he reached up and slid the well-worn, beautiful scarf from his neck and held it out to her, “take this and shoot straight.”

Hands flew to many bodiced chests and soft aw’s came from the crowd as Vex ran the scarf through her fingers, not committing to taking it. Percy loved this scarf, even to borrow it seemed like a bigger deal than it was likely meant to be.

Percy hopped the fence, the guards not lifting a finger because they knew Percy and Vex and they’d seen how they acted so many times before that it didn’t faze them. Percy slid one hand under her heavy braid and took one end of the scarf in it, then pulled it through and tied it in a beautiful, more elaborate than necessary knot (thankfully quite loose), and let go to admire his work.

“I will wear it proudly, thank you.” Her fingers brushed against his right cheek and her lips pressed against his left. Percy closed his eyes, controlled his breathing, and began reciting his list as her fingers lingered a moment longer than necessary and she whispered, “Thank you,” into his ear. Not for show this time. Just for him.

“Use my arrows, dear, when you win it should be with something as beautiful as you are.” His heart stopped when he realized what he said and he cleared his throat and stepped away.

Vex winked and turned to join the others. Percy jumped back over the fence. A number of hands clapped his back and there were words of approval and scattered cheers. He always forgot this part of the game, the fact that everyone else believed it so wholeheartedly. But she was a very good actress. There were times he almost believed too.

  1. _You are not good enough for her._



Bows went up.

  1. _She needs more adventure than you can give her._



Arrows nocked.

  1. _She could have anyone, you are no one._



Arms drew back.

  1. _You are fucked up. That’s really it. And she has her own issues, she can’t handle yours too._



Vex took two deep breaths, steadying herself.

  1. _You’re such good friends. You’re asking to ruin this for good._



Arrows flew to targets, Percy and Vex felt like they were watching in slow motion.

  1. _She’s nothing like you, she would grow bored of you in general quickly after realizing this._



The most beautiful arrow on the field struck the target dead center.

  1. _You only invite heartbreak upon yourself. Masochist._



There were five rounds total. All five with different arrows Percy had crafted for her. Totally up to competition standard of course, just with something beautiful added to them. Engravings, fletching, arrowheads. Just something to give her. She was so picky, she would toss arrows like she threw away dice in their DnD games. Anything less the superb was useless, so Percy kept a steady stream of new ones flowing for her.

Percy disappeared after they handed her the prize, a golden figure of an archer that rarely changed hands. Vex almost never lost. And whenever she did they scratched a tally and their initials in the bottom of the little statue to mark their place.

He always left early, he didn’t care much about the rest of the games. Sometimes he stayed for the throwing knives, but they usually did that one on week days, sometimes he stayed to watch Grog, but most of his were separate shows later at night. Anything with blood at least. Sometimes he’d break things here, but it was only if they couldn’t do one of the other acts. Days where Scanlan entertained were sometimes worth staying to watch, though usually not because whenever he stayed Vex would come find him to talk and be with him. And he could rarely handle that with everyone around them watching them like hawks to see if it was real or not.

And he definitely couldn’t do that today. His hands had been shaking so bad when he gave her his scarf and he needed to review his list more before he could be around her again.

So he slipped away, back to his little shop with Keyleth where Cassandra was sitting. She worked on the weekends with him to get out of the house, which was perfect because Vex’s competitions were on the weekends. The occasional one on the weekday or ones where Cassandra couldn’t be there for him Keyleth was able to manage both shops for a little while due to them being in the same large room with only an invisible line down the middle to separate them. She usually offered to so he could see Vex.

Percy always saw her as an enabler.

He didn’t say anything when he got back and when Keyleth saw that he wasn’t wearing his scarf she started to ask about it with a mischievous look in her eyes (Vax may have sent her a text about it), but Cassandra shook her head and Keyleth stopped herself.

Percy spent most of the day reviewing his list.

Vex spent most of the day reaching up to touch the blue scarf around her neck, checking to make sure it was still there and not a dream.

She didn’t offer to give it back when they were getting out of their faire garb and into Real People Clothes.

He didn’t ask for it back.

  1. _You are not good enough for her._




	2. Everyone Makes a Big Deal About a Scarf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's also karaoke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. There have been a lot of comments and subscriptions and in the pretty short time since I posted the first chapter I've had a larger response than I expected and I just want to say  
> I have literally no idea what I'm doing  
> Like  
> No clue you guys. Please don't get your hopes up. I just wanted to write them singing karaoke about being so obviously in love with each other and playing pranks on other faires and shit, like, this isn't nicely thought out or anything, I just want to write them being dumb idiots  
> Anyways, the songs they sing in karaoke were just songs I found in a Perc'ahlia playlist on Spotify by cinderfell on AO3 (I believe, still trying to piece the fandom together, so many profiles everywhere) that I thought fit the relationship they kind of have and the journal Percy has is the one I have to keep notes in for this fic.  
> Also the reason I have more than 6 reasons in Percy's new List (if anyone wonders or cares) is because it's obviously a different kind of 'demon' Percy is dealing with in his fic and his self-doubt and everything is going to have way more than 6 reasons why he can't be happy.  
> Also I bring up Percy on meds in this chapter because I've always seen him as bipolar like I am, but it's not going to be a story arc or anything I think in this fic, it's just a brief mention, so if people are triggered by that this is just a warning for that mention, it's towards the end of the chapter.  
> Sorry for the long note, I just spent the last few days watching the lovely comments and subscriptions and comparing the speed of all that compared to my other works and felt like I should preface this with I have no clue what I'm doing but thanks for liking it and I hope I don't fuck it up for you guys

Thursday night came and they found themselves in Matt’s apartment an hour after they left work. Thursdays were always exciting and amazing and fun and usually hilarious (and filled with a good amount of drinking).

This one also proved to be quite productive. At least in Keyleth and Vax’s opinion.

As the night pulled to a close in a terribly frustrating cliff hanger (with Matt using his high pitched and apologetic voice to say sorry but it was already almost midnight and they had work the next day) Scanlan mentioned that they all had Wednesday off. Which was perfect because Tuesday night was his gig down in some restaurant because someone else cancelled. And then he suggested hitting up the karaoke bar down the street afterwards.

Vax knew that there was one thing you could count on in a karaoke bar. People drunk and in love would make it obvious. There were things that alcohol and music could make people do that they couldn’t do sober.

Keyleth tried to say they drank together all the time, she’d never done karaoke so she didn’t quite see the different from going to a club. Vax tried to explain it to her most of the ride back to their apartment that they shared with Vex. Thankfully she had her headphones on and wasn’t paying attention to the discussion.

Vex still wore Percy’s scarf. She wore it in costume and out and about. Percy made no comment. Everyone else had of course.

Grog was first. His eyebrows knit together and a deep frown on his face as he stared at Vex’s neck intensely. “That’s Percy’s scarf, right?”

Vex didn’t even blink, “It was. I believe it’s mine now.”

“Is Percy giving his things away?” He gasped sharply, his hand flew to his mouth. He lowered it slowly, “Is he dying?”

She laughed and touched his forearm, “No, he’s perfectly fine. He just gave it to me.”

“Well why’d he do that?” Grog seemed a little miffed that Percy didn’t give him anything.

“Well I suppose it’s because I gave him a flower.”

After that Percy received a lot of small flowers and weeds from Grog. He later gave Grog a terribly ugly helmet in return.

Grog refused to take it off when he was in costume and it was difficult to get him to when he wasn’t.

Keyleth was second.

“So,” she elbowed Percy with a huge grin, “where’s that scarf you love so much?”

“You know quite well where it is,” he answered as he peeked over the edge of his glasses at the contraption in front of him.

“Vex has been wearing it all the time. And at home she still wears it most of the time. I almost never see her without it.”

“Yes, well it is nice. You rarely saw me without it either, there was probably a reason for that.”

“You really loved it. I can only imagine why you would give it away.” She waggled her eyebrows.

Percy knew what she was doing but pretended not to notice and instead remained hyper focused on his work, “Imagine away, my dear, but the truth is that the more I play up the romance the more people come to the shop to talk to me about it and the more money the both of us make.”

Pike didn’t get very far in her prodding.

“So, Vex.” She sat next to Percy on their break.

“What about her?”

“She’s quite pretty.”

He looked at her curiously, pretending not to understand where she was going with this, “She is. I would offer to talk to her for you, but I’m afraid Vax might be your best bet. I’m not very good at being a wingman.”

Pike’s face turned so red that Percy became legitimately concerned about her wellbeing and she had to leave.

Scanlan found Vex on the roof. He didn’t go up to her (he knew where his limits were and there was no way he could scale a building. He did not want everyone to laugh as he fell very hard.) He did sing to her about a white haired boy and a blue-gray scarf.

She shot an arrow between his feet and he stopped.

Vax went to Vex when he realized nobody else was having much luck.

He braided her hair silently in her room while she read a book. As he was close to finishing he said, “Percy is quite the charmer isn’t he?”

“I thought you were with Keyleth,” she said lightly and turned the page.

“You know what I mean,” he pulled her hair lightly as he finished.

“I suppose he is.” She shut her book and looked at the scarf that sat on the dresser with her rings and necklaces and such.

“Be careful of that. It’s easy to get caught up in it, but I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I’m in no more danger of that than you are. We’re just friends, Vax.” She turned to look at him.

“You and I both know you care about him more than that,” he held up his hands in front of him when her eyes narrowed, “I’m not going to tell you what to do. You should follow your heart. I’m just saying maybe…don’t give him your whole heart right away.”

Vex didn’t like that very much. “What, like you did with Keyleth?”

“That’s not the same.”

“Why not? Because he’s not as innocent as her? Because I’m not as pure as you are?”

“Vex’ahlia—”

She held up her hand, “It doesn’t matter. Even if I were…interested in him he wouldn’t want me. Family like his he could have anyone. He deserves the best and I’m not good enough for him. You may not see it but he is…” her heart ached; she didn’t like talking about him like this, having to actually think about it, “he is so good. And he deserves more. So you don’t need to worry about him hurting me. He’d have to want me first.”

She left him alone in her own room just to escape talking about it anymore.

What she said was of course a lie. She hurt every day because he didn’t want her. She was just a very good actress around anyone but her brother and occasionally the others.

Matt watched for most of the time. He observed quietly, which could be a little unnerving. Who knew how much he was filing away to use for later conversations. He was the only one who talked to both of them.

“It’s a lovely scarf. It looks good on you,” he said a few days later as he fell into step with Vex as she made her way to the kids’ archery range.

“It looked good on him too.”

“You both look scarily good in blue.”

She glanced at him suspiciously but he only looked ahead. “I suppose.” She said after a while.

“He has this little book he keeps with him. Very dark leather,” he looked at her then, “very similar color to your armor actually, and a blue turquoise ring on it. It’s quite lovely. Wonder what he keeps in it.” Matt knew what he kept in it. Matt was the only one who even knew about the book and most certainly the only one who saw the pages titled The List. It had been by accident, it wasn’t his fault Percy left his coat in the dining room after getting seriously hammered once. The book had fallen out and Matt had just wanted to make sure it was his. And then he became very interested.

The book was dark brown with a long strip of leather that wrapped around it twice to hold it closed. At the top of the band there was a small ring of turquoise and at the bottom of the journal was a small loop that he would slip the strip through to keep it shut. It was quite lovely. And Matt felt there was a little bit of symbolism there. If this had been a story at least. Life wasn’t always like DnD, sometimes things just were. But he liked making the connections anyways.

“He does a lot of sketches and that sort of thing, I’m sure it’s just a workbook,” she said that but Matt could see he’d captured her interest.

“Yes, I guess that’s true. Still, would be interesting to see the sketches and lists he keeps secret from everyone.”

“Lists?”

“Hm?” Matt looked at her with confusion, then pretended to understand, “Oh! Yes, lists, I mean I just noticed there were a few pages he was thumbing through that looked a bit like a list. I could be wrong, I wasn’t paying much attention and he was just skimming. I did see a few sketches, definitely not one of his inventions, looked a bit like you I think. Could have been anyone though, I guess.” Matt was completely lying. He’d looked at every sketch. Some of weapons and toys, a few of flowers. A lot of Vex.

“Right, right.” She looked off into the distance again, completely lost in thought. He wondered what she was imagining was in that book of his.

Next he went to Percy.

“She does look lovely in that scarf.”

“I was beginning to wonder if you’d notice,” Percy said with a smile but was already wondering how to disengage from the conversation.

“Don’t you know by now that I notice everything?” A wicked grin crossed his face, it looked scarily like his DM face. Percy felt a little bit of worry in that moment.

“That’s very true. And yes, you’re right, she pulls it off well. It’s why I haven’t asked for it back yet.”

“I don’t think she’d give it back even if you did. Have you seen Vax try to get his boots back? It’s near impossible.”

Percy laughed, “Ah, yes. She does always get what she wants, doesn’t she?”

Matt shrugged and looked at Percy with a strange look, “There are still some things she’s working on.”

“And those would be?”

“I may have overheard her talking about how she’s bored of being single. She mentioned a few names, I didn’t pay much attention though. I believe Jarret was on the list, there was Captain Damon, a few others.”

Percy swallowed the sudden lump.

  1. _Your family would never approve._
  2. _You’re not strong enough for her._



“Did you, uh. Did you hear anyone in our group?”

Matt frowned, “What, like Grog?”

Percy shrugged, “Him. Or uh, you know Pike maybe. Scanlan. Me.”

Matt smirked, “You? Why would it matter if she thought of you like that, it’s not like you would want her back.”

“No, no you’re quite right.” Percy tried not to let his disappointment show through. He shook himself and looked back at his sketchbook (not the one with The List in it. That whole book was terrible. Half filled with ideas that would never be good for him and the other half filled with reasons why he could never have those things).

As Matt walked past him he clapped a hand on Percy’s shoulder, “I will say that someone else asked about you and she got very quiet. She doesn’t do that too often. She does look lovely in that scarf though.”

And he walked off.

Percy pulled out the dark leather journal then spent a lot of time looking at it. From The List to the pictures of her in the trees, the ones of her braid, of gifts he planned on giving her.

  1. _You would drown in her. She is perfect and you are falling apart, you wouldn’t survive her._
  2. _You have responsibilities. You can’t afford to fall so deeply for someone._
  3. _Sexually speaking you don’t have the experience to please her._
  4. _You have nothing to offer her other than your heart, and that is worth less than nothing._



 

He still went to watch her. He toned back his flirting, back to how things were. Taking her rose and pretending to fan himself with excitement, smooth lines he’d worked on for months, handing her flower in return, things that were like they were before giving her things that actually meant something.

Not that she could even begin to understand. Not that he really understood. It had been his and now it was hers. He did it because he cared so much for her and he loved this scarf. It only made sense. She took it because she adored him and he was giving her something he loved. It felt right. Neither could really understand the other or the reasons behind it. Everyone else however found it quite pathetic.

 

And then Tuesday came.

Scanlan was hilarious as usual, mostly doing covers with jokes and all sorts of changes throughout it. But the best part of the night was the karaoke.

Scanlan was the first in their group of course. He sang Candyman by Christina Aguilera and was extremely into it.

Vax and Keyleth sung a disgustingly romantic duet (only after a lot of coaxing from Keyleth).

And then Vax and Keyleth bid their time, feeding more and more drinks into the two oblivious fools.

In less than an hour Vex was on stage. And Percy was mesmerized watching her roll her head to crack her neck, she looked loose up on there, like she could do anything. Always so brave. Gods he loved that about her.

He took another drink and Vax subtly waved for another one.

On the screen behind her the words Avalanche by WALK THE MOON came up behind her, but Percy was lost looking at her.

She licked her lips as she waited, he had the bluest eyes, how dare he have eyes like that, eyes that make her like this. How dare he. It took her a moment to get her bearings up there with him watching her so closely.

“You gotta look in your eyes

I knew you in past life

One glance and the avalanche drops

One look and my heartbeat stops.

Ships pass in the night

I don't want to wait 'til the next life

One glance and the avalanche drops

One look and my heartbeat stops.”

Percy bopped his head along, whether he liked the song or not she wasn’t sure, she wasn’t even sure if she liked it. She had found herself listening to more music that she never would have expected to lately. Music that all seemed to have something in common.

She wasn’t the only one.

Percy waited three more songs before signing up. Two more songs and an empty glass (and another wave for a new one) later Percy was on stage. Everything around him blurred except her. Dark hair, bronze skin, eyes so dark he could feel himself falling harder.

“If you'd agree to be my love,

I'd build you a world to fit like a glove,

And there you would rule and be queen,

A world with no crying.”

What was reason 14? Was it about her eyes? Or was that the one about her smile? Were those things on the list? They should be. They’re so beautiful.

“Oh, I know,

Lady Percy will never come to my show,

Up in the highlands, racing cars,

Building guns and breaking hearts.”

Lady Percy, it made him snicker when he sat down next to her. She wouldn’t want to be Lady Percy, but it was like the song was made for this moment. Building things and breaking hearts, that made sense.

Breaking hearts, that was reason 19 right?

The others sang, people in other groups sang, and eventually Scanlan pushed Vex back to the stage.

“Who are we to be emotional

Who are we to play with hearts

And throw away it all

Who are we to turn each other’s heads

Who are we to find ourselves in other people's beds

I don't like the way I never listen to myself

I feel like I'm on fire, I'm too shy to cry for help

I don't think you know me much at all.”

Percy was getting his reasons mixed up. He couldn’t remember the why nots and can’t be’s and his mind was being filled with yeses and wants.

She’s beautiful, she’s strong, she’s the one who would always be there, he wanted so desperately to be there for her in turn.

“Who are you to make me feel so good

Who are we to tell ourselves that we're misunderstood

Oh who am I to say I'm always yours

Who am I to choose the boy that everyone adores

Oh I don't see a reason why we can't just be apart

Now we're falling on each other like we're always in the dark

Oh I don't think you warned me much at all.”

He cocked his head when she said the boy that everyone adores, why did she look at him so intently?

She swayed as she stepped down off the stage and she sat next to him but differently. Always different. Caught between too far and too close, not far enough and not nearly close enough. Always shifting, never quite right.

And the night began pulling to a close, songs slowed down, people left, people held up lighters in ballads and there were many more tears and many more breakup songs. Everyone was sung out, including Percy who did a few more, but Vex had one more in her. Another song she didn’t remember when she started liking.

“What if we ruin it all, and we love like fools?

And all we have we lose?

And I don't want you to go but I want you so

So tell me what we choose.”

Reason number one, the most important one, fuck why couldn’t he remember it? He had the book, he could pull it out. He reached into his coat, fumbling and refusing to tear his eyes from Vex’s.

“Friends, I watched us as we changed

The feelings in my headspace rearranged

I want you more than I've wanted anyone

Isn't that dangerous?”

His fingers brushed the book but for once he didn’t care. One night, he was allowed one night, wasn’t he?

When they all got up to leave it became obvious to everyone that driving was strictly out of the question (save for Matt who hadn’t gotten a drink).

“I still have my old room in my old apartment, that’s way closer. They haven’t found anyone to take it yet, they already said that as long as it’s empty I can crash there when I want. Come on,” Keyleth whined and leaned on Vax, pouting in the way only a super drunk Keyleth could, “Home is so far and I just want to sleep now.”

Vax looked at Vex, surprisingly clear looking, Vex thought. “She’s right, it’ll be cheaper and honestly I just wanna crash. We’re gonna go to her old place tonight, is that okay?”

Vex waved a hand at them, “Yes, yes, that sounds great. I can finally have the place to myself. I don’t have to wear pants to get cereal in the morning.”

“Please don’t sit on my chair without pants,” Vax pleaded.

“How do you know I already haven’t?” She prodded him in the chest.

Vax half shuddered and nodded to Matt, “I know you’re taking everyone else already, but could you find some room for drunky here too?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got her,” Matt said gently, a kind smile on his face. He knew how much Vax worried.

Vax let out a heavy sigh and nodded, “Thank you,” he said with a smile, and he left a little lighter feeling.

“Alright,” Matt clapped his hands together and looked at the five in front of him, all in different stages of drunkenness. The second Vax and Keyleth had left Matt noticed Vex straighten up and her face grow a little more serious. Still not sober, but Matt had a feeling she didn’t drink everything Vax set in front of her.

Scanlan, Pike, and Grog seemed to pull out of a huddle and Scanlan stepped forward, “We have decided,” he burped and waved it around, “Vex will sit on Percy’s lap.”

Vex shook her head forcefully, hair whipped around, “Oh no, you are by far the smallest Scanlan. You should sit on his lap.”

“I can’t. I’m going to throw up and Percy didn’t like the last time I threw up on him.” Scanlan did in fact look quite green.

“That’s true,” Percy piped up.

“You better throw up out the window Scanlan, or you will be cleaning it up,” Matt threatened.

“Fair enough,” he nodded and hiccupped and then made a face, Vex was sure he threw up a little just then.

“Alright, Pike is the next smallest. She could sit on my lap,” Vex offered.

“I can’t, I fell down earlier today and, uh, bruised my butt.” Scanlan and Grog fell into a fit of giggles but Vex, trying as hard as she could but still a little drunk, couldn’t see through the lie and huffed.

“Fine. I hope you don’t mind, Percy.”

“Mind? Darling I’ve been wondering when you would finally sit on my lap,” he teased as they began making their way to the car.

“Be careful what you wish for,” she winked at him and he almost threw away his journal entirely. But while he was definitely drunk he wasn’t that drunk.

 

Scanlan, Grog, and Pike all shared an apartment and all got out when Matt stopped outside the building’s door. They waved to him and as if on cue Scanlan doubled over and began throwing up as they drove away.

They drove for a few moments before Vex slid off Percy’s lap, having forgotten she was on him and not exactly wanting to move once she realized.

They were coming up to where they had to turn to take her home and she felt her chest tighten. “I don’t want to make you drive the opposite way to take me home.”

Matt watched her through the rearview mirror. She sitting by the window and staring out it with a sad look. “I am kind of tired I guess. And Percy looks like he’s about to fall asleep any second now.” Percy giggled tiredly in the backseat and Matt watched Vex look at him with the smallest smile. “Why don’t you stay with us tonight?”

Vex’s eyes snapped up to meet his in the mirror, “Oh, no it’s okay, you can just let me out here, it’s no big deal.” Vex’s plan had been to take a long walk back. She hated her empty apartment and she wanted to think, but she still needed to go back.

“I can’t just let you walk back. Stay with us. Percy probably won’t even make it to his bed. Honestly he doesn’t handle his liquor very well and Vax ordered him a lot. Quite unlike our boy to drink so much, he’ll probably need help making it to the couch let alone his room. You can take his bed for the night, he won’t mind.”

Vex chewed at her lip and Matt started to turn away from her house. “Alright. It’s not like it’s that big a deal.”

It was a bigger deal than she anticipated.

Percy surprisingly didn’t need much help getting to the couch which he immediately fell into. He threw his arm over his face in the kind of over dramatic way she could see Scanlan doing. She sat at the end of the couch and pulled his boots off, making jokes the whole time while he just giggled and agreed. Matt watched with a DM grin, leaning against the doorway and watching things begin to unfold in front of him.

And when Vex got Percy out of his jacket she stood up and Matt nodded his head to Percy’s door, “It’s right in here. I’ll see you in the morning. No work tomorrow, so don’t worry about sleeping in or anything.”

“Thanks for letting me stay, Matt.”

“Come on, Vex, it’s not like you haven’t before. Hell, all those times where everyone stayed here? It’s no different.”

But it was and they both knew it. Vex never stayed here alone and she never stayed in Percy’s room. In fact, she’d been in Percy’s room only a handful of times and each time under his careful watch.

She felt strange entering his room and shutting the door behind her, totally alone in there. She’d been in there more than anyone else, except maybe Matt or Keyleth who would work with him on occasion. But she’d never been in there like this, with him unable to prepare for it or watch over her.

Percy’s room was almost frustrating. It was organized, clean, and yet at the same time it was cluttered and full and made no sense. Half-finished projects, clothes folded neatly on the chair, sketches littered the walls, the desk with at least ten notebooks on it, every crumpled page in the wastebasket instead of around it like in the movies. And books everywhere. She picked one up and saw evidence of all the dog eared pages, other books with bookmarks placed oh so carefully in them. And all of the things. Some of them she didn’t understand, contraptions and evidence of hobbies and interests she didn’t know, others were things she had herself.

His room was so very Percy. So clean and yet not, busy and still, so like her and so very different. He was two extremes. That was Percy.

She was wearing uncomfortable clothes, leather pants weren’t exactly the best thing to fall asleep in. And after a long debate she went to the chair and inspected the clothes on it. She didn’t find shorts or lounge pants like she had hoped, Percy wasn’t exactly a gym goer and if he had sleepwear he hadn’t left it out, and it didn’t feel right to look through his drawers.

He did however have boxers and t-shirts. And what could the harm be in wearing those?

She changed into a pair of plaid boxers and climbed into dark blue sheets which felt fantastic, she wondered how he ever convinced himself to get out of bed in sheets like these.

And then she just stared at the ceiling for a very long time.

 

Percy had nightmares. It was no different than many other nights. The meds helped but they didn’t take them away. The meds helped with a lot of things, just maybe not everything.

He woke with a start, reaching for something, anything near him to use in defense when a creaking noise woke him, still reeling from the nightmare.

And then there was a dull thump and a quiet, “Fuck,” that was without a doubt Vex.

He dropped his head back against the arm of the couch and looked around, catching his bearings. The living room. It was dark. And oh fuck his head was starting to hurt, the morning would be hell. And Vex was here. Coming from the hall. Likely his room. Right. Matt said she should stay there. At least Percy vaguely remembered him saying something like that. Sweet Pelor he hoped she hadn’t gone through his notebooks, he couldn’t remember if any of them had midnight thoughts about her.

 _I love her,_ was scrawled in at least a few.

She crept closer, not the stealth master he brother was, and he shut his eyes quickly. She was probably getting some water and he didn’t her to see he was awake and have a conversation, he was not in the right state of mind to talk without doing something stupid, he was aware enough to know that.

But when she was crossing in front of the couch she stopped and after a moment he could hear her kneel down and her hands pressed into the cushion under him.

“Percy,” she whispered.

He didn’t answer. He couldn’t handle that.

She sucked in a deep breath and said his name a little louder.

He stayed silent.

“Everyone else leaves, don’t they?” Her voice was on the verge of breaking, “Pike is gone so often now. Keyleth is leaving in the down season this year to spend time with her family. And…Vax.” She didn’t elaborate but Percy understood. She felt like he was drifting. He’d even mentioned going with Keyleth. “Percy, I don’t know what I would do if you left too. And I know you haven’t yet, but every time you hear from your family, about them trying to bring you back into the business, I can see you hesitate. But Percy…” her hand brushed against his and she pulled away quickly. He stayed perfectly still and after a few moments she slowly took his hand in hers, “I see you look around at work and I know you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. And…I know this wouldn’t change your mind, I know I couldn’t keep you here…but I-every day I give you a rose I give you my heart. And every day you give me something lovely and I kiss your cheek I give a little more of myself to you in return. And every time I wear your scarf I pretend you gave me yours too.”

Percy felt like his heart was going to stop, he had to focus on breathing lest he forget how.

He didn’t know she had leaned in much closer until she whispered, “Percy, I love you,” and then pressed her lips to his.

It wasn’t hard not to kiss her back, that would have required him to be able to register what happened.

And as quickly as she kissed him she was gone.

When he heard his door close he opened his eyes and brought his fingers to his lips and stared up at the ceiling for hours before he drifted back to sleep.


	3. It's Almost Like Playing DnD (Alternatively The Moments in Which Percival is Brave)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy isn't the most confident in his abilities, it's a good thing his friends are.  
> Also we talk about how some things can only be experienced in moments, which are entirely unreliable measures of time, but very worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I just got back from vacation two days ago and I actually have a plan (??) for this now and some semblance of a plot, so like, let's get this ball rolling yeah?  
> Also, the next chapter is going to make this an explicit work. I was going to have it in this chapter and go a little farther with the plot here, but I though this would be a stronger ending and decided to keep it here. A little sweeter than the other ending which would have been more plot related. I figured we had enough plot in this one.  
> Thanks so much for all the interest! I hope you guys keep liking it as much as I like writing it!  
> As always, unedited, unbeta(e?)d, if there are any glaring issues feel free to let me know and I'll fix it. You know, like mixing up Vex and Vax or something doesn't make any sense at all

Vex didn’t say anything in the morning. Neither did Percy. Though both of them remembered what had happened quite clearly. And neither of them were ready to confront that. So they didn’t.

Instead they kept things the way they had always been.

 

“A bunch of shits, that’s what they are,” Vax grumbled into his drink a few days later.

“Those-those assholes!” Keyleth sputtered out, still reeling.

A few months ago the rival faire had made an offer to buy out the Emon Faire. Of course they turned them down, no way in hell was anyone giving this place up.

And then things started happening. Mostly little things. All of their banners had dicks drawn on them. Or someone snuck in and broke a few lances to screw up the joust. It was mostly just irritating things, it was one of the reasons why Grog didn’t really have a full job. He was there to distract and entertain when they couldn’t do what they planned to.

Everyone pretended things weren’t changing. That this wasn’t affecting the faire. But it was, they just weren’t pulling in the crowds like they used to. And apparently Uriel was considering the offer a little more seriously now.

Especially after the recent ‘accident’.

There had been a fire in the night.

Officially it was an accident. It happens. They would be under a little closer watch, spot checks and that sort of thing, but the faire would be allowed to stay open without any real repercussions. Once it was rebuilt of course.

But people who knew what was going on behind the scenes, those who had been close with Uriel, those who had been there for ages, they knew. It was without a doubt the Briarwoods’ doing in an attempt to not only force Uriel to sell out, but to sell Emon’s Faire for practically pennies.

Unfortunately the people who saw this were limited to Vox Machina, alternatively The Shits.

Which led to this conversation in Matt and Percy’s apartment over many glasses of various alcohol. Percy and Vex avoided the couch Percy had slept on that night, unable to forget but also it was quite possibly the worst time to start thinking about that.

Grog cleared his throat and said, in a very typical Grog way, “I say we go and burn down all of Whitestone.” Vex thought that the base idea had merit to it but the end result was a little too far, despite how pissed off she was.

“Grog,” Pike said in her iconic Pike Mom voice and Grog looked down at his drink with just a smidge of shame. Pike then looked around at the group, “Well maybe not that, but there’s got to be something we can do.”

“We’ve got to get back at them somehow,” Vex muttered darkly.

“We’ve got to stop them is what we’ve got to do,” Vax added.

Percy was downing another drink in the corner, glowering darkly at something Vex couldn’t see. “Percy? Any ideas on vengeance darling?”

He looked up, shock flashing through his eyes as if he had forgotten he wasn’t alone. “If I had any I would have done it long ago,” he admitted.

Scanlan, who had also been unnervingly quiet this whole time, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his palms, a childish smile lighting up his face despite the situation. “Are we unlocking a piece of your oh-so-secret past? After a year of knowing you are we finally going to learn more about you?”

Percy’s lips twitched as he almost smiled, “You literally could have googled my name at any point.”

“Oh it was the first thing I did, and you know what I found?” Scanlan pulled his phone out and began typing away. The rest of the group, including Matt who had known him the longest (and was the only one who knew any details which was why he had been so quiet and keeping such a close eye on Percy since they got the phone call about the fire at three in the morning), had googled his very long name in hopes of finding out something about the family he rarely talked about. In fact, all they knew was that they were a well off family with a lot of investments and had a lot of children to take over. Percy was not the one who showed the most promise but his father was still hard on him, always trying to get him more involved and consequently stressing him out.

Scanlan flicked through articles, “It’s all about new businesses and meetings with politicians, a ton of stuff from a couple months ago about your brother talking about running for office, charity work, there’s no secret past in here buddy, just that you’re loaded.”

Percy had never denied that and it showed in many aspects of his life, as much as he thought he didn’t flaunt it. “I suppose we’re quite good about hiding our losses by now. My family owned Whitestone before the Briarwoods. We didn’t run it like Uriel, we let others handle it and we just took the money from it. It was how I got into the whole thing, I would go down all the time. And I would learn from the people working there. My family wasn’t exactly in love with it, but it was bringing in enough money to make them turn the Briarwoods down.”

They all knew what the next word was. Vex was the one who said it, her voice filled with venom, “Until?”

Percy nodded, “Until problems began to arise. Things broke down, things were getting stolen, vandalized by what we assumed to be teenagers, and eventually it became more trouble than it was worth. And like a blessing from the gods, the Briarwoods came back with an offer that made up for all the money we’d lost. And here they are again. I’m sure they’ve pulled the same thing to other businesses they wanted, but they’re very good and nobody can prove it. And they’ll take Emon’s Faire too.” Percy couldn’t help but blame himself. He’d tried to find proof of their illegal activities before but he just couldn’t do it. And now they’d take away everything he loved in one night.

“Unless we stop them.” Vex stood up, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked around at the rest of her family. It was a quest like Vox Machina would go on, like their DnD characters would do. Go up against a big bad evil to help a friend and save everyone from death (and/or unemployment).

Keyleth looked nervous but nodded, “We can’t let them just keep doing this. This is all Uriel has. This is all Gilmore has. This is…this is all I have.”

Pike jumped up, not standing much taller than she had sitting on the bar stool at the kitchen counter, “There’s got to be some kind of paper trail, right? I mean, they’re hiring someone to do all of this and a family like that would have records of everything.”

“I’m sure they wouldn’t be labeled The Money We Gave to Joe to Burn the Faire Down,” Percy said logically, trying not to let anyone’s hopes get too high.

Matt spoke up then, “No, but they wouldn’t be labeled the same as everything else. They’d want to be able to keep track of them. In a separate folder or maybe even in code.”

“And maybe we mess up some of their stuff while we’re there too, you know, get back at them for all that stuff they did to us.” Grog poured himself another drink as he remembered that time they wrote on the walls inside of the little employee changing room that he was dumb and had a small prick. He’d been trying to get everyone to get back at them for months. If he’d known all it would take was a fire…

“I’ve got some ideas on how we can do that,” Scanlan winked and everyone was too afraid to ask what those plans were.

And Percy was legitimately surprised when Vax said, “I can get us in, no problem. Maybe even peek around the offices.” Vax was the last one Percy thought would help. Truthfully, he didn’t think any of them would, let alone this passionately.

It was just like a Vox Machina plan, right down to Scanlan later complaining about the lack of an actual plan.

The faire was closed until things were rebuilt. It wouldn’t take long, Uriel had friends and connections which were speeding things right along. It wouldn’t be beautiful or as impressive as it once was, but it would be standing. And when they spoke to Uriel about it he sighed and said that if they couldn’t bring in a crowd to make up for the break or at least make things look like they could keep things going, he was going to have to sell.

But until then, the real life version of Vox Machina had work to do.

 

It was one in the morning on a Wednesday when they were sneaking in through the forest on the south side of the fairgrounds. This side was a few shops, some kids games and activities, but most importantly there was no wall or door to stop them from getting in. Ren Faires couldn’t have very tight security most of the time, it defeated the purpose. Bu permanent faires like this usually had walls around most of it, often looking like castle walls with a large ticket area. But the wall didn’t go into the woods, it didn’t need to and it didn’t look right. Instead a low wooden fence marked the edge of the grounds. Often with a security guard or two in the day time hours, but there hadn’t been a single incident here at night so there was nobody around to watch the locked buildings.

They gang crept through the faire to the center, occasionally stopping to poke holes in posters and draw large and detailed dicks on doors of shops owned by specific people they knew had caused problems before. Vax picked a few locks and they turned chairs upside down and Grog actually rolled up a rug and threw it on his shoulder and left with it. He said it would look nice in their apartment.

“It would, wouldn’t it?” Pike asked, smiling at her large friend proudly, “The blue matches the curtains pretty well.”

Grog just shrugged, he just wanted to take the rug.

Behind the Employee Only sign (which Scanlan took Grog’s crowbar to pry off the heavy wooden door, saying that no matter what kind of paper sign they put up while they got it replaced, it would fly away or get torn down or straight ignored and they would have guests stumbling through all day) were a handful of small buildings and tents. The wall wrapped around it entirely, leaving a small courtyard they used for changing rooms, break rooms, and an office.

The door to the courtyard had been locked, Vex picked it with a little of Vax’s help, and now they were splitting up. Scanlan off to one of the breakrooms, Vax, Vex, and Percy off to the office, Keyleth heard some birds in a tent a went in to investigate with Pike in tow, Grog went about taking anything that looked mildly interesting, and Matt stood guard at the now open door to the courtyard.

The door to the office swung open and Vax walked forward, gingerly setting his foot down and looking at the floor and walls carefully for security cameras, alarms, and anything else that might get them in serious trouble.

Vex and Percy were about three steps in when they heard Scanlan yell, “ _Fuck!_ ”

The three looked at each other in sheer panic and backed out of the room quickly, Vax making sure the door locked again as they stepped out. As they stepped into the cool night air again the door to the room that Scanlan had gone into was thrown open and a large man carried the comically small Scanlan out by the back of his shirt.

“Well, well, well, looks like we’ve got some intruders here!” The man dropped Scanlan unceremoniously to the ground and he scrambled away and jumped to his feet when he reached Grog who had dropped the rug beside him and was standing there menacingly.

Keyleth and Pike rushed out of the tent and to the rest of the group, panic showing clearly in Keyleth’s eyes especially. Matt skidded to a stop beside them, he’d been looking for people on the outside, it never occurred to anyone to look around in here.

A door banged open and a woman came out with mussed hair, a man following behind her and zipping up his jeans. “Oh goodness, what do we have here?” She looked over the group with boredom.

“You’re done fucking up our shit,” Grog growled. He never was one to beat around the bush.

“I don’t know what you mean,” the first man’s small smirk told them differently.

“The fire was the last straw, you’re done. You come back and you’ll regret it,” Vax warned. Percy found the vagueness of the threat to be the most effective part. Of course these people wouldn’t be dissuaded by threats.

“A week after you reopen you’ll sell and I’ll be getting a nice, cozy promotion to there instead. So I think you’re the one who’s done,” he snarled back.

“They’re on their way,” the woman said, looking down at her phone.

Matt looked at his friends, fear clear in his eyes. “I’ve never been arrested,” he laughed nervously, “but if I’m going to go into the slammer at least it was with you guys, stealing a rug.”

The woman, still on her phone (Vex and Vax could see she was playing Candy Crush), said, “You’re not going to jail. I texted the Briarwoods, they’ll decide what to do with you.”

Percy’s blood ran cold. He’d had personal dealings with Delilah and Sylas Briarwood, none of them good. In fact, if his friends weren’t standing her with him he would have made a run for it. But everyone was looking to him for a little bit of bravery.

“Why don’t you all, I don’t know, sit down or something while you wait?” She asked and gestured to the ground, her boredom evident.

No one sat and they were silent for a while. And then Scanlan, of course Scanlan, spoke. “So why were you guys here alone? Were you, you know, taking advantage of the full moon and empty rooms?” He winked at the man who had followed the woman out.

“We were assigned to keep an eye out for idiots like you tonight, we just thought we’d have a bit of fun while we were at it.” She started a new level.

“I’ve been there before,” Scanlan winked and then looked her up and down, “Though usually the girls are prettier.”

“You wound me small child,” her voice held no emotion and she didn’t even look at him.

Scanlan scowled but kept his voice light, “I put all my growth spurts to my—”

“Leave.” A smooth voice came from the entrance.

“Of course Mrs. Briarwood.” The woman turned to the slim man beside her and pushed him toward the entrance and jerked her head to the large one who had grabbed Scanlan. The three of them walked off and left Vox Machina with a tall woman in a gorgeous dress and impeccable makeup that Vex was sure took a lot longer than the short time in between the texts and her arrival. The man beside her was tall and broad, he had pale skin, dark hair, and dangerous eyes. Everything about the couple screamed power, danger, and dominance. On one hand, Vex most definitely approved and found herself wanting to give off the same energy. On the other hand she hated everything about them and wanted to get out of here as quickly and painlessly as possible.

“My goodness, Percival, it has been a long time hasn’t it?” Delilah completely ignored the others as she surveyed him. “I had heard that you were still around, doing something outside of the family business and all that, but I wasn’t so sure. It is good to see you again.” She gave him a toothy grin. She remembered all the games, ‘accidentally’ leaving almost useful information around for him to find, doors happening to click shut behind him as he snooped around and her walking in the next morning just _shocked_ to find him in her private office (“Come now Percival, this is quite rude. If you want to know something, you just need to ask”), and sending him on wild goose chases only to find the information was wrong. Oh how she had missed the entertainment. And how glad she was to see him again. “How can I be of service?”

Percy shifted uncomfortably, “You can stay out of Emon.”

She quirked an eyebrow, “I have no idea what you mean.”

“The Emon Faire. It’s not yours. It will never be yours.” Percy squared his shoulders. “Leave it alone.”

“We can’t help it if Uriel wants to sell. I can only imagine what such an awful thing happening to it could cost, he has people to think about, bills to pay. If he chooses to sell then I can only accept that and help him. It would do you well to remember all of the other things that can go horribly wrong. You never know who could get hurt in an accident like that.” Delilah’s gaze was uncomfortably intense and Percy had to look away. He focused on the ground, feeling like the air had been kicked out of him. What did he expect to happen? What could this fix?

“You seem like you like games,” Vax reached out to grab Scanlan, probably to cover his mouth to keep him from talking, but for once the small man evaded him and stepped closer to the power couple. “Fun fact, I also love games.” Sylas rolled his eyes and looked at his wife who had the barest hint of a smile on her face.

“You are…observant. But I’m afraid that poker won’t change anything.”

“Poker? You wound me! I would never suggest something so simple, nor with the prize being so dull as money.” Truthfully Scanlan had no money, but it wasn’t what he wanted. Not tonight.

He had caught her interest, not that it was difficult. The longer she had been at the top of the world the harder it had been to find anything that challenged her. The mere prospect of a game worthwhile was enough to give her pause. “Well? Are you going to share?”

“Delilah…” Sylas warned quietly, they had everything, they didn’t need to risk it.

“My love,” she turned to him and touched his cheek. Sylas leaned into the touch and sighed, of course she would get her way. And what she wanted he wanted for her, “as long as we are on the same side, we have nothing to worry about.”

Scanlan almost gagged at the display but figured it wouldn’t help his case much, so he held back. “Let’s do this the old fashioned way. A tournament. A third party will judge a series of competitions, archery, a joust, a sword fight, and all of the usual good stuff. A real good time between our two faires. And whoever wins takes both Emon and Whitestone.”

Wheels churned in her mind as she surveyed the group. “Any other…stipulations?” The questions really came down to what could Delilah do to win, not that she was above cheating to win, it was just a little less fun that way. A little.

Scanlan shrugged, “Doesn’t matter what you do. You’ll lose. We’ve got the very best standing right here and they’re not going to play for you. You could go hire Olympic athletes and you’re still going to lose.”

She chuckled and circled him slowly, looking him up and down, “So much confidence in such a little man.”

“I channel it through my dick.”

“Scanlan,” Keyleth hissed.

He looked over at her and just shrugged, then looked at Sylas because that was a lot less awkward than craning his neck to look at Delilah. “What do you say?”

He smiled and hummed deep in his throat, “What do you think, my love?”

“I like to play games I know I can win. Especially when the opposing party is so…fun.” She trailed her fingers along Vax’s shoulders and returned to her husband’s side. “You have a deal, then. A tournament, three days after you reopen. I will contact Uriel with the offer. I’m sure you’ll make sure he takes it. And whoever wins the tournament will have ownership over both the Emon Faire and the Whitestone Faire.”

“Sounds lovely,” Scanlan flashed one of his winning smiles and turned to his friends, “What do you think?” He pointedly looked at Percy for his answer.

Percy swallowed past the lump in his throat. He knew the chances. The Briarwoods had a million tricks up their sleeves, they had the money and the resources and every advantage Percy could name. And even if they won it didn’t take care of the root problem, they would still be out there. Still ruining someone else’s life.

Grog cleared his throat and said quietly, “My strength comes from my friends.”

Percy laughed quietly to himself and looked around him. Of course. He had the very best behind him. And in times when he forgot that, Scanlan and Grog had enough faith for all of them. “I believe I am ready to take Whitestone back. And I finally have the means to do so. I would wish you luck, but first off no amount of luck would be able to change that there’s no way you can win. And second off, I don’t want to.” He stood a little straighter and tilted his head in the way only someone raised with money could do, “Now we’ll be taking our leave. And I hope we don’t see each other until you put the deed in my hand once again.”

The Briarwoods said nothing, thoroughly amused by Percy’s bravado, and nodded in return. Grog made very aggressive eye contact as he picked up the rug again and began to leave. “I’m keeping this,” he said gruffly.

“I wouldn’t dream of telling you no,” Delilah said with a smile that made Grog very uncomfortable.

Percy led the group back out into the main area once again and back to the wooded area they had come in at.

“Percy, do you really think we can win?” Matt asked quietly as they walked off, making sure only Percy could hear.

“No, I really don’t. But this time I’d really like to be proven wrong. And Scanlan and Grog seem quite confident in us, maybe it’s time we listened to them.” Percy’s heart was pounding. Everything was riding on them now. His head was starting to hurt, his breaths were short and shallow, and his mind was going about sixty miles a minute. And at the same time? He was exhilarated. He felt like he could do literally anything right now. And maybe he would.

“Are you okay, Percy?” Keyleth asked as they climbed over the fence.

He opened his mouth to answer and hesitated, debating on lying, and then said, “No. But I believe I will be. Especially with you around,” he smiled at his best friend and she smiled back. She didn’t press him for more information and instead they walked in silence back to the two cars they had parked not far away.

When got back to the cars nobody seemed quite ready to go. So while Grog stuffed his new rug and other trinkets into the car they all began talking. Pike crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Scanlan, “What did you do?”

Scanlan rubbed the back of his neck and said, “Well, you know, I was thinking of ways to get back at them and I also had to shit. So, I figured two birds, one stone, I shit on the table in their breakroom. When I went in the lights were off so I didn’t see that guy there and I was getting ready to do my business and I believe I made a bit too much noise and woke him up. I barely got my pants back on before he dragged me out.”

Matt couldn’t hold it together. He started laughing louder than he had in a long time and everyone looked at him like he had gone crazy. “I’m just thinking, this is the most Vox Machina thing we have ever done. We all broke into that place, snuck around, fucking looted, the three of you tried to break into the office, Scanlan even tried to take a shit on someone’s table.” Matt then seemed to realize he was missing a few people and looked at Pike and Keyleth who were avoiding eye contact. “What did you guys do while you were in that tent?”

“Well. I heard some birds in the tent and I went to see them,” Keyleth started slowly.

“Right, and I followed along,” Pike added.

“And I saw them all in the cages and, well, I figured I’d free them from such awful company.”

“So she opened the cages and I opened up the back of the tent and we let all the birds go,” The blonde finished, raising her chin.

Which only made Matt laugh harder. “True Marisha fashion,” he said, naming Keyleth’s druid character from their campaign.

Grog slammed the trunk closed and looked triumphant, “I made it fit.”

Everyone shifted and avoided looking at the cars. And then Matt said, “It’s a beautiful night and Scanlan still deeps to—”

“Drop a deuce,” Grog said in his most eloquent voice.

“Let’s take ten, yeah?” Matt suggested and nobody had anything to say against it.

Scanlan went off, presumably to finish the job he started over an hour ago (gods knew how he had stopped and kept it all in for so long). Pike, Matt, and Grog started talking off by the cars. Vex caught something about beholders and figured it was DnD talk again. Keyleth and Vax were standing on one side of the clearing, talking in low voices and Vax was doing that thing where he looked at her like she was everything. Vex left as quickly as possible because in about three seconds Vax was sure to start talking about how much Keyleth amazed him. He was right, she was impossibly impressive and amazing, but she could only listen to Vax gush for so long before she had to gag.

Percy made eye contact with her and tilted his head to the forest and started walking into it. She followed him silently and eventually he came to a stop.

“Are you okay?” She asked, stepping a little closer to him but trying to keep a little distance between them.

He smiled and shoved his hands in his pockets, “No, but I rarely am. And it helps having you around.” He cleared his throat and looked away. “All of you.”

It didn’t hurt to hear him clarify, it didn’t disappoint her or make her jealous. She understood completely. They were all a team. And while of course she wanted to be someone who made things better for him she didn’t want to be the only one. She wanted him to have the whole team to help. “We’re going to win,” she promised.

“I have the number on archer right in front of me, how can I have any doubt?” Vex was momentarily distracted by how his white hair shone in the moonlight and his blue eyes were everything like those ‘piercing blue eyes’ she read about in stories.

Percy was equally transfixed. Vex’ahlia was beautiful. She was always beautiful. And right now was no different. He couldn’t remember his list, he couldn’t remember any of it other than reason number one, _You are not good enough for her_ , and even that was hard to remember. He reached into his inside breast pocket and felt his fingers touch the leather journal. And Vex’s dark brown eyes were meeting his. And she was dangerously close. And he was feeling full to the brim with energy and bravery and a drop of selfishness. He had faced the Briarwoods head on, he had people who were ready to go to jail with him, he had people who would quite literally be fighting for him, he’d done the most exciting, adventurous, and spontaneous thing he’d ever done in his life.

And he was certain he could do better than that.

He looked back toward where they had come from, looking for an out of place shadow that would be Vax looking for his sister, but saw nothing. And then he looked back at Vex, beautiful, perfect, amazing Vex.

He didn’t say a word. He wanted to say a lot of them, he would have gone through half the dictionary if he could figure out how to speak right then, but words failed him. So instead he closed the distance between them, cupped her face in his hands, and lowered his lips to hers.

In a word, the kiss was instinct. It was feeling, natural, it moved on its own, and it both surprised and was completely expected by the two of them. How could they be doing this? How hadn’t they done this already? Vex’s hands fisted the back of his jacket, neither of them knew when she had done that.

If someone counted the ticks of the second hand on their watch it would have lasted eight, but kisses are worthless in seconds and only actually happen in moments. Moments are the only way to measure kisses. Moments last somewhere in seconds, minutes, hours, an eternity. Moments don’t have real time attached to them. Just like this kiss, moments are just another form of instinct. And this kiss lasted three moments. Three seconds, three minutes, three hours, three eternities. All at one time.

And Percy, understandably overwhelmed and not whelmed enough all at the same time, pulled away first. He didn’t say anything, just put his hands back in his pockets, smiled at her in the way he would in front of the crowd (though it had always been just for her, only now Vex knew it wasn’t for show), and walked back to the car.

Vex stood there, breathing heavily, her mind reeling but no actual thoughts going through, and just watching Percy walk off for two moments. And then she followed.

They got into separate cars (Percy, Matt, Grog, Pike, and Scanlan in one, Keyleth, Vax, and Vex in the other) and drove off without saying another word to each other. Matt seemed to be the only one who noticed.


	4. At the Same Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What Percy and Vex do at the same time when they aren't together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally able to rate this now. I didn't rate it earlier cause I knew it would become Explicit but I didn't want to rate it as such before I actually had a reason to in case people were looking for that (I know I do). There will be at least one more scene that's full on smut but this is a more plot focused story than my usual stuff and will have about 9 or 10 chapters, so not sure if I'll have a ton of scenes like that  
> I wanted to get my third and final chapter of About the Color Blue out tonight too but I only got about half done, so probably tomorrow.  
> Anyways, thanks again for sticking around and I hope to keep you guys interested for the next like, 5 chapters

“You’ve been quiet, Percy,” Matt remarked when they were alone in the car.

“Have I?” His voice lilted up at the end, perfectly aware of how he was.

“You have. Did something happen?”

“I am going to face off against the great Briarwoods. Maybe even get Whitestone back. I’ve been thinking about it for years and it might actually happen.” It was most of the truth.

Matt gave him a sideways glance and refocused on the road. “How’s Vex?”

“Last I checked she was fine.”

“Did she say anything when you guys walked off together?”

“She just asked if I was okay.” And that was the full truth.

Matt dropped the matter and said, “We’ll see Uriel tomorrow. Get all this figured out.”

This was something Percy didn’t want to think about. “He won’t be able to get everything set up, even with all the help. He’s doing the bare minimum right now. We didn’t get far enough into the season to have the money to take care of this, we don’t have the money to prepare for an event like this.”

“We’ll make it work. We always do. And I’m sure he’ll understand the importance.” But even Matt didn’t sound too sure about that.

Percy sighed. They’d figure it out. Though he was dreading exactly how they would. Perhaps he needed to start thinking about his elevator pitch.

 

He didn’t think about it. He meant to, he really did. But then he hopped into the shower, which he thought would help clear his mind. It did work, it cleared his mind of everything except for the kiss.

And well, things escalated.

A frustrated gasp left his lips as his hand slid along his cock, aided by the warm water washing over him. He was facing the wall, his left arm bent at the elbow and his hand balled into a fist above him. His forehead was pressed against the cool tile, his eyes were squeezed shut, his mouth hanging open, and water cascading over his shoulders and down his body. His hair stuck to his forehead and in any other time, Vex would have found it cute in a rather pathetic way. Like a dog coming in from the rain.

If she’d seen him like this however, naked, facing away from her, water rolling off him, and all she could see were the muscles in his right arm moving as he fucked his hand while he thought of her, well that would have been another feeling entirely.

He didn’t cry out her name. He was controlled. De Rolos did not call out names because they couldn’t control themselves. Everything they did was 100% intentional and thought through. Percy was not the best son, he couldn’t say he followed that idea very often, but he did tonight.

He stroked himself faster, the feeling of her lips on his so clear in his mind it was like he could still taste her. Somewhere deep down he felt a spike of shame for this, like he was taking advantage of her. However, shame was a feeling for later, right now he just _wanted._ He’d wanted for a year. And for once he was going to want without reminding himself he couldn’t.

His body stiffened and he let out a low groan as he came on the tiled wall he was leaning against. And he stood there panting heavily for a few moments, four to be exact, while he recovered from one of the more intense orgasms he’d had in over a year.

 

At the same time as Percy was trying to bring himself over the edge and refusing to say Vex’s name Vex was in a slightly similar situation. Though while Percy would have been a beautiful cover to an erotic novel, Vex would have been something much more obscene.

She was lying on her bed, her legs spread and her knees bent while she pumped a lovely blue dildo in and out of herself and moaned without much thought to anyone listening or holding back on her desires. Vax and Keyleth had gone to grab a very early breakfast (being four in the morning) as some sort of weird date, which meant Vex was alone.

Which meant she was vocal.

“Fuck, Percy,” she whined. How long had she thought about kissing him but reminding herself a man like him would never want someone like her? And yet he did. He seemed to at least. And now she couldn’t think of anything but him.

Her other hand had a fistful of the blue-gray scarf Percy had given to her which she held above her head in a striking resemblance to Percy’s position in the shower. She bucked her hips, she was close now. Images of him flashed through her mind, him pulling away from her, his lips bright red and swollen from kissing her, his neck and chest covered in deep, dark hickies, him under her as she took him in, his hands tied above his head as she rode him and she saw just how far all of that pompous self-control took him before he broke.

She gripped the scarf tighter, moans and curse words spilling from her lips like they were nothing.

And when she finally pushed herself over the edge with the image of Percy masturbating to the thought of her and saying her name as he came, she cried his name out louder than ever before.

 

“Our insurance won’t cover almost any of it, without these connections I wouldn’t be able to even afford getting us to a good enough point to open. I sure as hell can’t come up with the funds to follow through with this crazy stunt,” Uriel grunted. He was standing behind his desk in his home office. Vox Machina had gone to his home at a more reasonable hour.

“This could do more than save us, this could bring us to completely new heights,” Scanlan was their front man, as always. But he wasn’t doing well enough. There wasn’t much he could say that would make this plan workable.

Percy however, he had an ace in the hole.

“If I could get a sponsor and all you had to give up was Whitestone when we won, what would you say then?” Percy’s hand was shaking and he clenched it into a fist at his side.

Uriel looked at him curiously, “Do you have any idea the kind of money we would need to get such a huge amount of work done well in such a short time?”

Percy’s lips twitched into a smirk, “I believe I am the only one in the room other than you who understands the price.”

“You know I don’t want Whitestone, what your…sponsor wants from me is worthless to me, they’d be better off asking for a percentage of our revenue or something.”

“I know you don’t want it. But I believe I can convince them that they want it.”

Uriel nodded, pursed his lips, then said, “I need this deal made by the end of the week if it’s going to happen. Make it work or I’ll have to tell the Briarwoods the tournament is off. And…” suddenly he looked very old, “I would start looking for new jobs if I were you. The more I look at the reports the more obvious our situation becomes.”

“Don’t even think about that. Give us a few days, we’ll figure it out,” Vex winked at Uriel, sounding more confident than she actually was.

“We’ll see,” but he smiled despite the grim tone, “you don’t have much time. I’d suggest you be on your way.”

They stepped out of the house and started down the street to where they’d parked the cars. And when they were out of sight of the windows Vax turned to Percy.

“What the fuck? Now you’re promising all this money? Where are you gonna get it? How can you make that kind of promise?” He seemed almost angry, anyone passing on the street would have believed that, but in truth he was scared. Percy was offering things they couldn’t give, what kind of people was he making deals with without telling his friends?

In truth, they were not the best people. Thankfully, they were better than most.

“I’m going to go to my family and offer to involve myself in the business more in return for their help.” Percival answered honestly.

Matt looked at him with wide eyes. Percy had been pushing away any and all responsibility for years, and for the most part his family didn’t care. Of course they wished they had another child to help broaden their empire, but in the end they just wanted Percy not to be a blight on them, but if Percy was offering to be an asset and not just quiet, well Matt knew his father well enough to know he’d take the deal. And he knew Percy well enough to know he’d be miserable.

“Percy—” Matt reached his hand out to touch Percy’s shoulder, trying to think of other options already.

Percy stepped back and looked at his watch, “In fact I’m on my way now. I said I would be there by two.”

Grog frowned, “That’s still a few hours away right? Do they live that far away?” He didn’t think they did but he also couldn’t remember for sure.

Vex was the one who answered, “On time is late in their eyes,” she said with an edge to her voice. She’d had enough experience to know how to deal with an important father. And she knew Percy would be waiting until after 2:30 to speak to his father and would be showing up around 1:00, but anything else wouldn’t be good enough. And unfortunately Percy needed to be everything his father wanted and more.

Grog opened his mouth to argue that, but Pike quietly started explaining it in an easier way for him. Vex wasn’t sure if Grog actually got it by the end, she was too focused on Percy to notice.

“I could go with you,” Keyleth offered quietly.

“I’m afraid they’d eat you alive,” he smiled softly at his closest friend.

Vex wanted to volunteer but something caught in her throat. Percy’s bright blue eyes caught hers and he smiled and nodded his head ever so slightly. He could tell she wanted to say she could go, but he could also see how desperately she wanted to stay away from his family. She’d told him enough about her father to understand.

Vox Machina and their daddy issues. It almost made him laugh.

“I need to go by myself. It’ll be easier to convince him if nobody is shitting on a desk in another room,” Scanlan pressed a hand to his chest in mock offense, “or just so many assholes in general,” he teased as he looked around at his friends. He wanted them to go with him, mostly he didn’t like facing these kinds of things alone anymore, but he also knew his odds were better if they stayed home. And looking at Vex he wasn’t sure he wanted to take her anywhere near people like them.

They all agreed eventually, and as Percy waited for his Uber Vex walked up to him, making Keyleth and Vax wait in the car for her. “I…should give this back to you.” She held the scarf in her hand, very differently than she had early that morning after getting home.

Percy frowned, all that had changed was their kiss, but then again that was no small thing. Perhaps he had stepped too far. Perhaps he wasn’t what she wanted when she was sober. “I gave it to you, and honestly it looks much better on you than it did on me.”

She laughed a little but it sounded hollow, “Well you’re right about that. But it was for the show. I should have given back a while ago.”

“Nothing I’ve done has been entirely for the show. Including giving you my scarf.” It was a roundabout way of saying, ‘I love you,’ but Vex understood. She withdrew her hand and put the scarf back around her neck. “When I come back…we should talk.”

Vex quirked an eyebrow and nodded, “Okay.”

“But uh,” Percy looked over her shoulder, “maybe don’t tell your brother about last night yet, I’m not sure I can run quite fast enough.”

Vex could tell he was mostly joking, and she was sure Vax would be fine with it, maybe just some words of warning but ultimately would trust her to make the right decision. But she wasn’t exactly sure what this was and she didn’t want to involve Vax without knowing.

That didn’t mean she didn’t want to talk to somebody about it though.

 

As Vex got out of the car she turned to Vax who was turning off the car. “Oh, shit, you know what would be great?”

“Whatever it is, no.” He unbuckled and she shut the door behind her.

Vex looked at Keyleth who was standing beside her and shook her head and pointed to Vax still in the car. “Oh yeah,” Keyleth was watching Vex, utterly confused but going along with it, “you’re right Vex. That would be great.”

Vax sighed and put the keys back in, not even making it out of the car. “What do you guys want?”

Vax leaned down to the open window so he could hear her better. “Uh, milkshakes. And, uh,” she looked at Keyleth and shrugged.

“Oh, that book I was talking to you about? That I wanted to start reading? If you just happen to be around a bookstore do you think you could pick it up for me?” Keyleth probably went a little too far in retrospect, but Vax agreed and drove off.

Vex took Keyleth’s hands in hers and said, “Keyleth, Keyleth he kissed me!”

“Who? Uriel?” She made a face and started to pull away.

“What? No! Percy.”

“Percy kissed you?” Keyleth wrapped her arm around Vex’s waist and they started inside, “What happened?”

“We were in the woods and he just-he just kissed me!”

“What was it like? Tell me everything.” The front door closed behind them and they spent all the time that Vax was away talking about Percy.

 

Percy didn’t get the pleasure of talking about Vex. Instead he waited in his father’s second study. He stood behind the guest’s chair patiently, Only pulling out his phone to put it on silent. If his father came in while he was texting or perusing the books in the office his father would turn it around on him and there was no room for that today.

“Percival,” his father was looking down at a file as he walked behind the desk.

“Father.”

“I’m sorry I’m a little late,” the clock on the wall read 2:37, “my last meeting ran a little long. You said you had something important to talk about.”

“The Briarwoods are trying to buy out the Emon Faire as well. We recently had a fire and are trying to rebuild. It wouldn’t be an issue if we weren’t trying to prepare for a tournament with the Whitestone Faire so soon after this unfortunate event. We’ve made a deal with the Briarwoods. Whoever wins takes the deeds to both. It’s the only option we have to save Uriel’s business.”

“You seem very invested in this failing business,” he didn’t even look from his file as he sat. He waved his hand at Percy to sit. “Get to the point.”

“I was hoping you’d help us get back on our feet in time.”

“Oh?” He turned the page. “Sounds like a waste of my resources.”

“Uriel doesn’t want Whitestone. He wants to give it to you.”

“Had it and all it did was eat a hole in my pocket. I sold it to the Briarwoods, why would I want it back?”

“I’m going to manage it for you. You wanted me involved, I’m offering to get involved. My way of course, but it’s more than I’ve done so far.”

His father paused and set the file down. “I’ve been asking you for years to take on some responsibility and all it took was this hobby of yours to get into some danger?”

Percy ground his teeth, “Can I tell Uriel to expect your offer?”

“I believe your sister has been following your footsteps, Percival, but I think she has more potential than half your siblings. I’d like her to get on a better, more stable path,” He steeped his fingers and peered at Percy over them.

“You want me to put a kid in charge of a business?” She was almost 18 technically, but that was by no means old enough to do what his father was suggesting.

“I want you to mentor her and encourage more worthy pursuits of her time.”

Percy stood and walked to the door, “Cass isn’t a bargaining chip.” He turned the knob and opened the door to see his younger sister standing there.

“I’m the one who decides what I am.” She stepped past her brother to see her father, “I’ll work with Percy. You know him, he’s going to want to be out with the people, he’s not going to want to run everything from an office, but someone needs to. And with Percy’s help and other people we will have hired to advise me, I can take on a large enough role. In a year and a half on my birthday I can decide if I want to officially take over. But you have to give us everything we need to be at our very best.”

Percy’s father smiled, “This is more drive than I’ve ever seen from you, Casandra.”

Percy didn’t even think Cass liked the faire enough to do something like this. “You don’t need to do this. We can get the money somewhere else.”

“It’s nice that you care, Percy, but you don’t get to make these decisions for me.” She smiled at her brother and sat across the desk from her father.

“This all rides on the fact that you win the competition,” he mused.

“My friends are better than anyone else,” Percy snapped.

Cass held up her hand, “If we lose, which we won’t, but if we do then I’ll be in any business you want. And I’m sure Percy will as well.” She looked at him pointedly.

He was still facing away but could feel her eyes on him. He clenched his jaw and slid his shaking hands into his pockets and nodded, “Yeah.”

Percy heard his father clap his hands together, “Wonderful. I’ll get in touch with this Uriel, whatever he needs.”

Percy was hallway out of the house before his father finished getting Uriel’s contact information from Cass.

 

They played DnD that night. They didn’t have anything else to do and gods knew they needed the distraction. Which it definitely was, a climactic session that ended in a lot of yelling and Matt with his hands up, laughing, and saying they’d have to just see what happened next time but that they couldn’t keep playing for another four hours.

And then everyone was so piss drunk they couldn’t drive home, so they had another camping session in the living room of Matt and Percy’s apartment.

Vex found Percy in the kitchen as Pike and Keyleth organized the fort with the rest in the living room.

“Is it weird that Travis and Laura are, you know?” Vex asked, naming her and Grog’s characters in the campaign. Percy found them unoriginal. Taliesin was better, Marisha was better, but he didn’t tell Vex that.

“No! I mean, I think it works with your characters and that’s important. It’s acting, it’s not like you and Grog are, you know.” If she wasn’t going to say the words he wasn’t going to either.

“Gods no, he’s like my brother,” she laughed and looked away. “I just wanted to make sure that it wasn’t going to make this, whatever this is, weird.”

“It doesn’t. And…we should talk about this.” Percy admitted slowly.

“Yes, we really should.”

“But,” he paused, everyone was just feet away and after everything he’d gone through earlier he wasn’t sure he could handle that kind of talk, “later,” he finished.

“Later,” she agreed.

They walked back to the living room and were immediately ambushed by a lot of people hitting them with pillows.


	5. Ways We Unwind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vox Machina needs to relax and everyone does it a little differently. Percy's way is with Vex.

Things progressed quickly after money suddenly came into play. While everything was being rebuilt the employees practiced their skills with renewed vigor, everyone intent on pulling their weight in saving the faire.

Grog wrestled and fought daily, there were plenty of people eager to fight (and lose) to Grog, but his favorite was the man who always spoke in riddles, but the kind of riddle Grog could get used to. Riddles where you punched each other. Groon (they called him Earthbreaker for fun) took a liking to Grog and set about teaching him some new things. Most of the time Grog came back looking like he almost died in the fight, but he always said he won. It would have made Pike a little nervous if she didn’t believe him.

Pike was working on some tests of strength as well, a secret weapon in their eyes, their little nurse running out and breaking boulders. Vax was working on his daggers of course, but he and Scanlan also started working on magic. With Scanlan’s charisma and Vax’s subtle and dexterous hands they had spent the last few weeks working together to come up with something, and were surprisingly good. Though it wasn’t much of a surprise that they worked so well together, they always had.

Keyleth working with Percy on making some special items, things that sparked and turned and were nice to look at. Mostly just the aesthetic part of the tournament. And when she wasn’t doing that she was working with Matt on what he would do, which was harder to figure out than it sounded. He was a jack of all trades, and a very good one at that. And in the end he found himself on top of a horse.

He’d done the joust a few times, mostly filling in, which was what they actually needed now. Their main knight for the joust had mysteriously found a new job. So Matt took over, feeling less than confident, but Keyleth was able to help him get at least a little more comfortable. And she spent a long time talking to the horse about what he should do. Sometimes the horse seemed to almost understand.

Percy felt rather useless, gun didn’t exactly fit the time. But Uriel came to him a few days before they reopened when everyone else was preparing and getting back into the swing of things, and said Delilah herself offered to make an exception for a small game of exciting trick shots. The offer made Percy uneasy, it sounded like Delilah had some sort of plan, but Uriel convinced him to go through with it, saying he was just as good a marksman as Vex was and they needed him as much as they needed her.

So he had been working with Vex in his downtime before they reopened. Which was not as awkward as Percy thought it would be. Vex never mentioned the kiss or the promise of talking more about it, things were, for the most part, normal. Which was good because everything that had been going on was just a little too much for Percy to handle becoming more involved with Vex so quickly. He still had his damn list on him at all times, though there was now a second list with reasons why he cared so much for her, but he often felt caught between the two. And he didn’t feel that it would be right to have the ‘later talk’ without being able to make a concrete decision himself.

And Vex was working harder than ever. Percy was often breathless when he was watching her. He’d always thought Vex reminded him a little of an elf, especially when she was holding her bow, and even more so when she was actually using it. She was impossibly skilled, every movement was smooth, like she’d been practicing for decades, quick, and always accurate. He’d bought her pointed ears for her birthday once and she liked wearing them around the faire.

And this was it. This was what they had been working towards.

Tomorrow the doors would open and in three days’ time the Briarwoods would be sitting in the “royalty” section of the new stands, eagerly watching the games unfold. And there would be nothing left that they could do.

In fact, Percy was hard pressed to find something they could do now at this point, especially so late at night. Everyone had decided on ways to spend what might be their final hurrah. Keyleth and Vax had gone camping for almost a whole week. They were actually not going to be at work until eleven because they’d experienced some troubles on the way back home and had to spend a night in some motel.

Scanlan and Grog were off finding women. Pike was at the temple she had helped rebuild with her own hands, she found a lot of peace there and said she needed time to prepare her mind and soul and pray for some help. Matt had been working nonstop on a new chapter to their campaign. He buried himself in another world when this one became unruly. It was the DM in him, he wanted to have more power in this situation than he thought he did.

Vex and Percy had just been practicing. A lot.

Until the night before. Until it was almost two in the morning and Percy still couldn’t sleep.

He stood at the apartment door and took a deep, steadying breath. He’d left his list at home. He wondered if it would have given him strength or made him turn tail and run if he had it. He didn’t need it though, he had them both memorized.

  1. _She is understanding._
  2. _She is the bravest woman I’ve ever met._
  3. _She gives me strength when I cannot muster it myself._



He knocked.

There was no answer for a moment, which made sense; it was two in the morning. So he knocked again before he could regret it.

“Who is it?” She sounded surprisingly awake considering the hour.

“It’s me. Percy,” he clarified.

“Percy?” Her voice lilted up at the end and a smile tugged at his lips.

“Yes. Would you open the door?”

There was a moment’s pause and then the door opened. And before him stood Vex in all her natural glory.

He swallowed hard and looked her up and down slowly, which was exactly what she wanted. She watched his eyes drag up her, letting him drink her in, and tossed her hair back a little to let him admire her a little longer before she cleared her throat. “What a surprise to see you here. Did you come for our later talk?”

His tongue slipped out to wet his suddenly very dry lips. “I honestly can’t remember, but I believe it led to something along these lines.”

“Oh?” She put a hand on her hip and watched Percy who was currently focused on her chest. She noticed how he had shifted his bag from his side to in front of him.

Percy, realizing the bag as well, quickly opened it and pulled out a bottle, “This is called Dire Heart, this we simply call Courage, this is a snow mead, and this is green tear whiskey,” he named each on, showing the beautiful bottles that screamed of their cost. When they were all settled in the bag again he said, “Can I come in?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” She stepped back and let him into the apartment.

The door closed behind him and Percy took the top off of the Courage and drank it straight from the bottle. Vex stayed very still, Percy, much like a bird, could fly off at any wrong step. So she let him take his drink and ogled him shamelessly. And when he held the bottle out to her she took it and had some too because she was getting nervous and could use some courage herself.

She set it on the small table by the door where they set their keys and stepped close to him. “It’s a little warm in here for a jacket.” She slid her hands underneath the coat and up his chest. She pushed the jacket off his shoulders and let it pool at his feet.

“Is that why you’re dressed like this?” He let her start unbuttoning his shirt.

“Well this and also I’m just not a huge fan of clothes in general.”

“Do you answer the door naked for everyone, then?” His white shirt fell to the ground with his jacket.

“So many damn layers,” she huffed as she pulled at his undershirt. “No, I don’t, but I saw you through the peephole and I didn’t want to keep you waiting.”

He turned her face up to his and said, his voice low and husky, “Then stop making me wait.”

He kissed her, rougher this time. His teeth nipped at her bottom lip and her tongue slid against his, his fingers thread through her long, unruly hair, and she walked him back until he bumped into the wall behind him. She abandoned the undershirt to cup him through his jeans, feeling him grow hard under her hand.

He moaned and Vex stood on her toes to whisper, “Is that one of your guns in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” She teased breathlessly against his ear.

“Only one way to find out, isn’t there?” He panted and pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it away from them.

She dropped back down and began undoing his belt but her hands weren’t quite steady for once. It was frustrating, she was so used to having complete control over herself, and Percy walked in and kissed her and suddenly she was a wreck again. The whole reason she had answered the door naked was to see him like this.

Unsatisfied with the pause Percy grabbed her arms and spun her around, slamming her against the wall and pressing himself against her, kissing her deeply, his calloused hands grabbing her hips. She left his belt and took a fistful of his hair, giving it a less than gentle tug. Percy groaned as she pulled his head back, his blue eyes dark and his mouth open as he panted.

“What do you like, Percy?” She asked sweetly and kissed his neck while he struggled to catch his breath.

“Really? Are we going to have this conversation now?” He bit his lip as Vex dragged the fingernails of her free hand down his chest.

“If we don’t have it now things aren’t going to be nearly as fun as if we did. Now tell me, Percy, what makes you so hard you ache?” She took it home by tightening her grip on his hair and littered his chest and neck with kisses while he thought. She craved his mouth again, wanted to kiss him like before but if she started she’d never get her answer.

He gasped and said, “This. All of this. You. Pulling my hair, talking to me like this.”

“Talking dirty or like I’m in control?”

He was no longer pinning her to the wall, his forearms were against the wall on either side of her head, shaking, and his body pressed against her desperate for contact. He was barely holding himself up. Vex tugged his hair again. “Answer me, Percival,” she warned lightly.

“Yes, gods yes. Both,” he whimpered. She had enjoyed his little spurt of dominance but this was infinitely better.

“Good boy,” she felt his body relax ever so slightly and pulled him back to her lips. She’d waited so long. And now he was here. And this was real. When she pulled away she half expected to open her eyes and be on her bed with his scarf in her hand again, but he was in front of her, his lips red and his eyes just as hungry as hers. “Do you want to know what I like?”

“Please,” he licked his lips and she watched his tongue and almost got too caught up in her imagination to answer.

“I like taking control. I like getting what I want. Is that something you would like, Percy? To give me what I want?” She loosened her grip on him momentarily, trying to show him that it was perfectly okay for him to say no or change his mind. To at least talk in more detail.

“Please Vex, I’m yours,” he whispered desperately.

She slid her hands to his shoulders and pressed down, “Then you’d better get to work, darling.”

Percy wasted no time lowering himself to his knees and ‘getting to work’. He kissed her stomach and ran his hands up and down her thighs, his teeth scraped her hip as he ran his thumb along her slit for the first time, stopping at her clit. He circled it slowly at first as he sucked a hickey on her hip bone.

Vex’s bottom lip was between her teeth and her fingernails were digging into Percy’s scalp, though he didn’t seem to notice. She parted her legs a little more and pushed his head to where she wanted him. She only opened her eyes to look at the sight below her when Percy’s tongue dipped inside her for a moment before focusing on her clit.

And it was a beautiful sight. Percy still in his jeans, his head between her thighs, his blue eyes looking up at her. “Oh, Percy,” she reached up and pulled at one of her nipples.

He pressed two fingers into her and began fingering her while he sucked and licked her clit, wanted to draw every sound he could from her. It almost made the near pain in his pants bearable.

He crooked his fingers and she moaned, “Right there, fuck, Percy,” and ground into him harder.

Percy, desperate to please her, sped up and refocused his efforts. But it wasn’t until he added a third finger that he felt her legs tremble and she tightened her grip on him and cried out, “Percy!”

He didn’t stop, he wasn’t quite ready to be finished, but soon Vex was shaking and had to push him away, panting.

He sat back on his knees patiently while she gathered herself together. His hands were balled into fists on his knees, refusing to even unzip his jeans until she told him to. It was a fantasy he’d thought about quite often (in complete secrecy of course, de Rolos don’t let anyone take control), being told what to do, and he hoped he’d understood Vex correctly when she said she liked taking control and hoped he’d made it obvious enough by saying he was hers.

Vex looked down at the man in front of her, a smirk finding her lips when she saw the outline of his cock. “So good and patient. We’ll have to test that eventually, but right now I want you to take those off. Do you have a condom?”

His ears burned as he stood up and reached into his wallet and pulled two out. He had put them in before coming over, having hopes for the night. She smiled and took them from him and nodded to his pants. Percy undid the belt and took his pants off, kicking them father down the hall. He had thought about taking his boxers down with them but at the last moment he got nervous, suddenly wishing he had some more Courage earlier.

He stood in front of Vex in black boxer briefs outlining his current situation very clearly.

It took three steps for her to reach him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down so she could kiss him, holding back a little. “Percy,” she breathed against his lips.

“Vex’ahlia,” his voice shook but he loved how her name felt on his tongue.

“The talk is after of course, but I just wanted to say that you are…you are so important to me. And I care so much about you.”

“Vex, I—”

She didn’t want to know what came next, not yet. Just in case. “After, we said after.”

Percy didn’t argue, he just kissed her.

Vex ran her fingers along his cock through the thin layer that separated them and it took a lot out of Percy not to moan her name. Instead he pulled her closer to him. “Bedroom?” He managed to ask as her hand dipped into his boxers and her skilled fingers wrapped around his length.

“I’ve cum in my bed thinking of you so many times that it’s lost its luster. And do you really want to wait to get to the bedroom?” Satisfied with how he felt in her hand she began pulling his boxers down.

Percy thought Vex made perfect sense, the bedroom was much farther away than he cared to go. He pulled her unceremoniously and clumsily to the floor, likely bruising some bits of both of them, and Vex held one of the condoms between her fingers and tore the wrapper open. Percy was sitting up with his arms behind him and watched her roll the condom on. And then she put her hand on his chest and pushed him onto his back.

She took him in her hand and lowered herself onto him, a low moan escaping her lips as he filled her. She wasted little time getting used to him, she wasn’t in the mood to savor this. She was in the mood to take. To completely lose herself to this moment.

Percy’s fingers dug into her hips, Vex was lucky he kept his nails so short or he might have drawn blood. His knees were bent to help give him leverage as he thrust up to meet her, she rubbed her clit desperately, finesse and skill long forgotten in the haze.

She fell forward, her hands slamming into the floor on either side of his head, her lips parted as she reached the edge. “Percy, Percy cum with me,” she pleaded, so close she could taste it. But she needed him with her.

De Rolos are not supposed to cry out people’s names. Good de Rolos are always in control of themselves.

But it had been a long time since Percy belonged to anyone except Vex.

“Vex’ahlia!” His voice broke and he slammed up in her, bringing her hips down to him hard and Vex tightened around him and said his name in a high pitched, shattered voice and she kissed him sloppily.

For a moment he was afraid he would drown in her. And then he remembered that Vex was not an overwhelming and unknown ocean with currents that dragged him under and held him. She was Vex. And if she had to be related to a body of water it would be the slow, familiar river he grew up near. She was home, a little unpredictable sure, but never harmful to him. And she was always refreshing and good to him. He couldn’t drown in her, he knew her waters too well for that.

She didn’t roll off him, instead just settling herself more comfortably on his chest, now with a shine of sweat that matched her own, and found his hand. She traced patterns on his palm with her fingers and he found himself dangerously close to falling asleep here, on the floor of her apartment, naked, and without having the talk he’d promised her.

“Vex,” he murmured, pressing his cheek into her hair. It smelled like coconut from what he assumed was her shampoo.

“Yes?” He could feel tense up slightly and her finger stutter in her tracing. It was reassuring that she was nervous, he wasn’t the only one.

“I love you.”

She didn’t say anything for a while. Percy didn’t need her to, he didn’t need to hear her say it back, that wasn’t why he told her. He told her because he promised to talk and it was the truth.

And then she picked her head up and looked at him, “I love you too, Percy.”

He smiled and cupped her cheek, kissed her softly and slowly, and then just hugged her close to him. The rest could wait until they found out what happened after they dealt with the Briarwoods.

 

They woke on time thanks to the alarm on Percy’s phone. However finding it was a struggle considering how they had just haphazardly thrown Percy’s clothes around the place. And they had to swing by Percy’s apartment to gather his work clothes.

“If we show up together people will suspect things,” he said as they finished getting dressed. It had been torture holding himself back from her while they did so, but he was experienced in holding back.

“Is that an issue?” She asked and tightened the laces of her boots (they looked strangely similar to Vax’s and Percy wondered if he had left them home while he went camping and Vex took advantage of that).

“I just don’t want you to feel like you have to go all out with it right now, there’s a lot going on and we haven’t talked too much about it. I just want you to be comfortable, you know? I don’t—”

Vex gently grabbed Percy’s face and tilted it down to meet her eyes, her thumbs rubbed his cheeks lightly, “Percy, this isn’t some movie where we have to pretend and keep it some big secret. I want you. I want people to know. I don’t want to hide this, if anything I’m in the mood to flaunt it.”

He smiled and felt his shoulders relax. He lay his hand over one of hers and leaned into her touch, “I love you,” he said again.

She kissed him quickly, “I love you. Now let’s get your things or we’re going to walk in three hours late with Vax and Keyleth.”

 

They weren’t exactly early, but they walked in close enough to on time that they could change and get ready. They both noticed an odd amount of eyes on them and a lot of their coworkers elbowing each other, grinning, and whispering things. It all felt strangely like they’d been waiting for this. Which was exactly what it was. Percy was very grateful Vex was holding his hand because the whole thing was just a little strange.

They parted ways, like always, and like always Percy promised to see her at the tournament.

Keyleth came a few hours later and joined him in the shop. “How is everything? What’s the crowd like?”

Percy nodded, “It’s good. Fair amount of people, very excited about the big tournament. It’ll be on a Saturday, a lot of them are planning on coming back with friends. Whitestone will be closed from what I understand, they’ll be directing people here for it.”

“That’s good. As long as we win, at least. Which we will, I’m not doubting it at all. It’s just, you know, stressful is all. Also have you noticed that everyone is being really weird today?” She made eye contact with one of the random performers who had been loitering outside their shop.

“It might be partially my fault,” Percy admitted.

“Your fault?”

“Vex and I, er, we came in together. From my apartment,” it was technically the truth, they didn’t need to know that Percy had spent the night on the floor of her hallway, “and I think one of my hickies was pretty visible.”

“Hickey?!” She grabbed his collar and pulled at it to try and see.

He chuckled and unbuttoned the top bottom and showed her, “Yeah. We might have some things to talk about.”

“Obviously!” She sat down next to him, “Get started, mister.”

 

The days passed quickly, too quickly. And they were all in Percy and Matt’s apartment the night before the Whitestone and Emon tournament. They hadn’t play DnD like they thought they would, instead they just sat together in quiet fear.

Until Scanlan cleared his throat, stood up on the chair, and said, “I have a plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, sorry for the wait everybody! Had some issues with this chapter, I felt bored with it. Predictable. But I am really excited for a little piece in the next chapter which prompted me to just post this one already.  
> Anyways, thanks for staying with me! You guys are great and I love you.  
> Also that part about oceans or water or something was literally written at 2 AM and looking back I can't remember if it made sense, so sorry?? I would edit it, but you know, I read it once and that's as I'm writing it, whatever happens happens.  
> Not sure what else to say other than we're over halfway done and I hope you guys are still feeling this story.  
> See you guys soon??


	6. The War Begins (And an Interpretive Dance Seems to Actually Inspire Everyone)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vax and Scanlan leave early to get to work on the plan, everyone else is left to pick up the slack.

“That’s a terrible plan.” Keyleth was blunt, staring Scanlan with wide eyes.

“A terrible plan is still a plan. And I would just like to say it’s not nearly as stupid as when Vax suggested that we Dimension Door _into a dragon_ and nobody had an issue with that.” Scanlan pointed to Vax who looked deep in thought.

“Not the same thing at all,” Vex interjected, “it wasn’t real then. It was a game. This is seriously dangerous.”

Pike’s voice was soft and it almost made Scanlan sit down and forget it just so he wouldn’t hurt her, “Scanlan, what if you get caught? Or what if you go through all this and there’s nothing there?”

“We won’t get caught,” Vax said and stood up next to Scanlan. He slapped him on the back and said, “I’ll go with him. He won’t do it alone and if anyone can make this happen without anyone noticing us, well that would be me. As for if we get what we’re looking for or not, well it’s nothing lost if we don’t.”

“And what about the tournament? You’re talking about doing this while they’re all gone and what about when they notice you aren’t there? You’re supposed to be throwing knives, and you think they won’t notice our main bard is missing? You’re being idiots,” Vex huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn’t going to listen to her brother talk about this any longer.

Vax had thought a little about this while everyone called Scanlan an idiot earlier. “We’ll have Uriel switch me and Percy. I’ll go first, Percy will take a spot in the middle. We’ll tell Uriel it will be a big surprise right before the break. We’ll have you and your opponent walk out, waving your guns around and acting like a badass, that way it helps ensure people stick around for the second half.”

Scanlan nodded, jumping off of Vax and saying, “I’ll pump everyone up in the beginning, but nothing super huge. And then you guys can carry it the rest of the way. You’ll keep them hyped up, they won’t even notice we’re missing.”

Vex elbowed Percy’s ribs and said, “Tell them they’re stupid.”

Percy looked at Vax, so similar to his sister with long, unruly dark hair and intense eyes and more than anything, stubbornness. But he was also just as skilled as his sister in what he did. “I think it’s a good idea. Well, maybe not good, but the best one we have.”

Vax was a little surprised, he and Percy rarely saw eye to eye, but he was grateful to have him on his side and nodded his thanks. He then looked around the group, “Let’s put it to a vote then. All for Scanlan and I breaking into the Briarwood Estate during the tournament?”

Grog’s hand shot up, Percy raised his slowly, Vax and Scanlan obviously raised theirs, and Matt nodded and raised his as well. Pike, Keyleth, and Vex didn’t look thrilled.

“Idiots, all of them,” Vex muttered, but the vote had been taken and she knew she couldn’t stop them. “We better make this good if we’re going to make it work.”

 

At dawn they were in the dressing room together, helping putting on the final touches to each other’s outfits. And Percy cleared his throat as he helped Vex and held something up for her to see. It was a pin of a sun over a tree and five stars underneath it. “It’s my family’s crest and I, uh, well I just thought it might bring you some luck.” His ears were pink and he had a hard time making eye contact with her.

Vex thought it was adorable, they’d fucked on the floor of her apartment and he still got this nervous around her sometimes. She smiled and took it from him and pinned it to her scarf off to the left a little bit so it was still visible but not in the center. “I love it,” she said and kissed him.

Grog gasped and hit Pike’s shoulder excitedly. He’d always thought the two of them should get together and now that they were he was constantly fangirling over them, even more so than some of their other coworkers, which was another strange experience. Not unpleasant, but odd to see how many people were invested in them.

They finished getting ready and went to the tournament location. De Rolo money had given them something more grand than they had ever imagined. And as they all stood there, looking out over the field, Keyleth walked forward and cleared her throat nervously.

“We’ve come this far and there’s not much else for me to say at this point. But I have prepared something.” She dropped her head and paused, then raised her arms high and spun, pointed to Matt and mimicked riding a horse and stabbing someone with a lance. She then motioned to Percy and held up a finger gun, the ‘recoil’ blasting her back. Vex was loosing an arrow from her bow of course. Pike was represented with what appeared to be an arm wrestle where she slammed someone else’s hand down. The Grog was smashing…something. She pointed to Scanlan and pretended to play the flute and when she spun around she was crouched low and pretending to be sneaky. Which led into Vax throwing something (presumably knives) and then picking a lock.

She then bowed and everyone clapped and Vex snorted. “Was that an interpretive dance?”

“I thought it would be inspiring,” Keyleth’s cheeks turned pink.

Vax walked up and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, “It was very inspiring, I have no doubt we’ll be successful today.”

Pike nodded eagerly, “It looked like you worked really hard on it.”

“I did! I wanted to make sure you could tell what everyone was doing.”

“We’ll do you proud, Kiki,” Percy said with a warm smile.

“Yeah, I’ll yell your name when I crush whoever goes up against me,” Grog flexed his overly large muscles.

Vex had controlled her laughter by then and said, “You’re part of the team too, Keyleth, you may not be winning competitions but you have a very important part to play too. We need you too.”

Keyleth, who had always looked up to Vex, almost melted. Even after a year she still doubted herself sometimes, and the friend she admired so much just said she was needed. So had the others, but there was something about Vex saying it that made it just a little different.

“Okay everybody, let’s get set up. They’ll be here within the hour.” Matt was the one to draw the group back on track.

 

“Ladies and gentleman! Welcome to the very first war between Emon and Whitestone!” Scanlan was standing in front of targets that were being used for the marksman competitions. “I would like to sing you a song!” Wild cheers erupted from the crowd as Scanlan queued the band to start playing the music to How to Be a Heartbreaker by Marina and the Diamonds.

“Briarwoods we’ve got a little wager,

They wanted a little danger

Said they’re going to beat our ranger

What a hater, we will be-be-beat you!”

Scanlan took a deep bow as he finished his song all about defeating the Briarwoods and Vex looked up from her spot off to the side where a few people in the tournament were standing and preparing. They were filtering in and out so it didn’t get too crowded, which was good because it meant Vax wouldn’t be noticed if he was missing later on. And it also gave her a good spot to watch the Briarwoods for a little while.

They didn’t look pleased with Scanlan’s song and refused to clap with everyone else.

As if feeling eyes on her, Delilah Briarwood turned her gaze to meet Vex’s and smirked. Vax, who stood beside her, followed her gaze and scowled. This would end tonight, one way or another.

“Now, as much as I know you want me to keep singing, I must pass the torch to the rest of my amazing team!” Vex looked back to her brother and he was already gone.

The games were beginning.

Percy was watching from the crowd of guests. He wasn’t allowed into the waiting area yet, which worked better for him because Vex would come after Grog’s first wrestling match and his whole part was during her show.

He watched as Scanlan pulled his cloak from his shoulders and swung it around in front of him. When he whipped it away there stood Vax, appearing as if from nowhere. He raised his hands above his head and slowly turned, showing his empty palms to the crowd, then turned his hands once and there were three daggers where air had been.

The crowd ate it up, cheering and howling as the Briarwoods’ kid came up. Nervous, shaking in his boots. It was obvious Vax’s change in order coupled with his amazing introduction had gotten into the kid’s head.

But the hype didn’t matter in the end. It all came down to where the daggers landed.

It was a plain game compared to the intro. Three daggers into moving targets, the one with the most points won. If you spent too long aiming there was a penalty as well, speed and accuracy were key, but they weren’t anything as interesting as magically appearing in front of the crowd.

The boy went first, aiming for the two middle distance targets. He pulled to the left on two and too low on the third, but he wasn’t at all bad. Vax thought with the right person to take him under their wing he’d grow exceptionally well.

Vax hit the farthest target’s bullseye three times, his daggers lining up in a neat line next to each other.

Emon’s flag was waved and a smaller flag stuck in the ground to keep track of the score. Vax wanted to talk to the boy but there was no time. They had to leave as soon as they could and hope the rest of them could handle the crowd and distract the Briarwoods. He decided he’d talk to Percy about hiring the boy when this was over. He was young, he wasn’t responsible for being manipulated by these people.

After being cheered and named the winner and the next event began getting started, Vax seemed to melt into the shadows. He met up with Scanlan at the car and they got in and drove off in the direction of Whitestone with no one but a bored parking lot director even noticing that someone had left, let alone the two of them.

Back inside Pike was standing up against the fence, raising her arms up and egging on the crowd as the crew prepared a wrestling ring for Grog and whoever he was going to be going against. “Who thinks they can take me on?” She shouted and flexed her biceps in a menacing manner, but the short blonde woman looked practically like a fairy creature of some sort and definitely not strong enough to talk such a big game. Also like fairies tended to be, she was very deceiving and would kick your ass if you mentioned anything about her looking weak to her face.

In a way they were lucky someone did.

“Oh yeah? And what’s a girl like you going to do?” A heckler shouted in _that_ voice.

“Why don’t you come here and I’ll show you?” She challenged.

The crowd oohed and the man’s buddies shoved him forward, saying if he was going to talk a big game he should follow it up. “What do you wanna do, princess?” His lips pulled back into a very uncomfortable looking smile, somewhere between a sneer and a grin. Vex was disgusted and very excited to see her girl destroy him in front of everyone.

The fence was no longer just some sticks tied together but had a full, wide, and most importantly flat piece of wood on top. Perfect for arm wrestling, Pike thought. She slammed her elbow onto it and waited for him to follow suit, “Show me what you got, milady.”

He growled and his hand clasped hers. Beside them someone put their hand over theirs and slammed the banister once, twice, and a third time, releasing their hands as he did so.

They stayed still for a moment, each fighting for the upper hand (literally), and Vex thought Pike was at a serious disadvantage being quite a few inches shorter, but that thought was quickly pushed to the side as Pike all of a sudden slammed his hand into the wood.

After that there were a lot of volunteers to try their hand against Pike’s. Nobody seemed to question where the colorful bard might be, not even the Briarwoods who watched Pike’s decimation of the men in the crowd with dark looks.

 _So far so good,_ Vex risked thinking as Grog pounded his fists together and strut out onto the field and into the ring they’d set up. Which really amounted to a circle on the ground to the left of where the dagger competition had been and a ref in black and white ren faire clothes. Pike left her new adoring fans and took her spot beside the ref as an onsite medic.

And out walked an ugly kind of man. Vex was actually surprised the Briarwoods, who were so unnaturally beautiful, hired this kind of guy. He looked like they picked him from the streets. But he did look experienced in a fight. He was bald with a bristly mustache and a face that looked like it had taken as many punches as it gave.

“Go Grog!” Vex shouted as they started to circle each other.

Swing after swing, each taking as good as they got. Grog slammed ‘The Hammer’ down onto the ground and started pounding away, definitely breaking his nose. Pike went to stop the fight, but Kern spat blood in Grog’s face and flipped him, obviously not done fighting, and the ref pulled her back. The rules were until a tap out or unconsciousness.

The national sport of Tal Dorie might as well have been wrestling. Of course it tended to be more of a northern thing, but everyone here was excited to see the blood. Which was why Grog had more events than anyone else. And it was why it had so little rules, especially in this kind of setting. The people liked it that way. So did the fighters.

Grog was the first to fall. And ugly, dirty hit from Kern, who should have gone unconscious seconds earlier but somehow managed to shake it. Pike rushed over, waving for her backup, and began treating the two bloodied and worn fighters.

A Whitestone flag was jammed into the ground and the next event was ready immediately. It was the archery, they’d changed the targets and set up all manner of exciting things. This was more like a game of HORSE, but much more intense and with much more at stake.

However it started the same as always.

The two archers stepped onto the field, roses in hand, and the Whitestone archer handed his rose to a little girl who squealed with excitement. And as Vex turned to find Percy’s white hair and give hers to him she was shocked to find him sitting on the fence. When he caught her eyes he stood up, wobbling a little as he did so, and pulled a worn and delicate book from his inside coat pocket.

Scanlan had told them to play it up, to make it big and dramatic. And he had jokingly told Percy to sing. It had been the only thing Percy could come up with, so it was what he decided to do. He did however choose the song himself and Cass had found the book in his old room and brought it to him. Technically the music to the song didn’t exist anymore, in fact the lyrics barely existed and nobody could be 100% certain they were lyrics and not a spoken poem.

Percy had found it in a very old book, hidden deep in the pages, and hadn’t seen it anywhere else. He was using the slightly more understandable and modern version, but it was by no means easy. However, he had always quite enjoyed it and never felt like there was a place where he could do so publicly and with the right emotion and reason. Now he had it all. What better place than this faire? What better emotion than love for Vex’ahlia? And what better reason than just because he wanted to? (Though saving Vax’s ass made the experience a little sweeter.)

He cleared his throat as Vex stopped in front of him, utterly confused, and looked down at the yellowed pages. It had been a long time since he’d had the poem memorized and longer since he sang outside of karaoke.

_“For weal or woe I will not flee_

_To love the heart that loveth me._

That heart my heart hath in such grace

That of two hearts one heart make we;

That heart hath brought my heart in case

To love that heart that loveth me.”

The song continued for a few more stanzas, the crowd barely breathing as they listened to the shopkeeper sing. This was different than drunken karaoke and the song became more of a tongue twister as it continued but he continued smoothly and with obvious familiarity, and his voice was surprisingly clean and clear. It was more beautiful than anyone expected and every single person could feel Percy’s pure love as he sang. Even the Briarwoods looked a little bit in awe. Though they hid it very quickly.

And when he finished and hopped down from the fence so he was standing on the same side as the rest of the crowd. He turned to look at Vex and his cheeks and ears burned, he could only imagine how red they were.

“I haven’t forgotten to bring you something,” he added when she just looked at him in silence for a few moments, and seemingly out of nowhere he procured an arrow he had been working on for over a week now. It was sleek, the shaft and the tip were black and the fletching started as black, then moved to gray, and the end was a bright red. “It was inspected by everyone beforehand, you can use it today. If you want to that is,” he said sheepishly, extremely aware of every eye on him.

She held the rose she had picked for him and looked at it for a moment, then dropped it to the ground, grabbed his jacket, and yanked him in for a chaste kiss. It was quick, nothing too inappropriate and her supervisors found it best not to try and reprimand her for it later considering how wild the crowd went.

She took the arrow from him and said, “I’ll win this for you.”

 

Vax and Scanlan were over an hour away now, Pike’s performance ate up time and Grog’s match had gone on much longer than anyone anticipated. Scanlan had changed out of his bright clothes in the back seat, Vax always wore black and found he moved more like shadows in his gear. He called it his lucky cloak.

“Twenty minutes, get the mustache,” Vax called over his shoulder as they sped along.

Scanlan’s head peaked up, the tie around his neck still undone, “You think they’re doing okay back there?”

“Most definitely, we’ve been playing DnD for over a year getting ready for just this kind of thing. They’re going to be doing way better than we ever planned. Just keep your mind on what we’ve got to do, Mr. Reynolds.”

 

So far they had been pretty evenly matched. They were tied and were now in a sudden death round, though Whitestone’s archer had gotten close to winning more times than Vex, but Vex had been practicing this next shot for a while and this archer didn’t have the chance to. She had a feeling it would be enough to put her not only in the lead but win the game.

After all, she promised Percy.

Vex climbed the nearest tree, which was really not that close at all, but it was within view and barely inside her comfortable range. She sat on a sturdy branch and nocked Percy’s arrow and went to stand on the branch. She hadn’t even gotten to her feet before everything went tits up. Her left foot was pressed on the curved branch and slipped out from under her and she tipped back. Instinctually she hooked her legs around the branch, but she was already falling back.

She swung, much like in an aerial acrobatics show, her bow still ready in her tense hands as the momentum carried her around so that, for a second that went in impossibly slow motion, she was once again staring at the target, this time from underneath the branch. And the bow, like magic, seemed to be in just the exact right place.

Her fingers let go and her legs no longer had purchase on the branch. Years of not so legal activities that led to a little bit of free running when they were younger had stuck with Vex and as she fell she managed to get her legs underneath her again and landed on her feet just as the arrow found purchase in the target. It wasn’t the dead center shot she was used to, but it was actually very close.

People were screaming and her opponent looked shocked and a little bit scared.

As Vex passed him she tossed her braid back and hoped she looked like that was all intentional and not the most terrifying moment of her life.

Percy would have been lying if he said it wasn’t a little bit of a turn on.

Needless to say, Emon won the archery contest.

And then it was time for Percy’s intro.

There was nothing meant to happen between the events this time, it was the big reveal before the intermission. And when he was cued Percy walked out, pulled out his guns, and began showing off cool spins he could do with them. And then held one up and aimed at Delilah, who didn’t move a muscle save for the corner of her lips that turned up into a smirk, and faked the recoil of a shot.

And then silence fell as a woman walked out from the other side of the field where the Whitestone members stayed.

She held up a hand in greeting with probably the coolest prosthetic anyone had ever seen. Except for Percy who was familiar with it.

She pulled out her gun and aimed at Percy, who suddenly couldn’t breathe, and faked the recoil back at him.

The crowd loved it. Percy felt a sudden urge to launch himself at her and take a page from Grog’s book.

 

“Now see here, my name is Burt Reynolds and I have the paperwork right here that says this is where I was supposed to meet my clients Mr. and Mrs. Clementine,” Scanlan held up a quickly printed and signed, mostly official looking, piece of paper.

Vax had been very against naming them after oranges, but Scanlan insisted he could pull it off.

While the two guards posted at the door of the mansion were distracted Vax slipped into a nearby window and began sneaking off to find anything to help them finish the Briarwoods for good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First: The song Percy sings is a recent favorite poem I found by trying to find a medieval poem for him to read and I found that and it's really quite lovely (though it takes a few reads to understand. Definitely not a particularly easy read, but I thought it worked really well with the two of them and I really like thinking about Percy singing in a serious and sober way). Google The Heart That Loveth Me if you're interested  
> Second: Rarepair week is coming up! September 3rd is when it starts and this is really great timing because I was literally in the middle of a fic I think will work for it. And I've been coming up with a ton of other really fun ideas I wouldn't have thought of without thinking about other ships. Anyways, I'm bringing it up now because while I plan to finish up the last couple chapters of this fic before then I just wanted to give some warning on why I might not post much else until then and then all of a sudden there will probably be at least three fics, probably more posted one right after another.  
> Third: I love you guys and this fandom and I have been super nervous about posting on a platform like this again and when I saw this fic getting more attention than I was used to I panicked because on other sites people were more demanding of what I wrote and when I posted and it really took out the fun and I wanted to say thank you for being so good. Like every email I get saying I have a new comment sends me into a cold sweat and then I read it and it's amazing and lovely and I know I don't respond often (I never know what to respond with and I feel like you guys wouldn't want to hear me just say thank you fifteen times with no spaces) but I do read every one and I actually haven't deleted a single comment because I like looking at them when I feel like I'm a real shitty writer and this is all pointless. I'm by no means the best around and I've got a lot of room to grow and I know that, but you guys make me really want to put in that extra effort and get better and keep posting and I just wanted to say thank you and that this is for you guys. You rock, keep it up.  
> Fourth and Final: Vex's shot was 100% impossible, would never work, but I like to think our wonderful inspiring leader and the love of her life and a nat 20 to hit/dex would make it possible. Also I wanted to give Keyleth a cool challenge like everyone else but without magic in this world it made it really difficult and I know it doesn't seem like it but I really really love her you guys.  
> PS I am so sorry about Scanlan's song I am terrible at that kind of thing and I just had to oush through


	7. What We Do For Family (Also Because We're Just Petty People)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tournament draws to a close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the chapter reads weird, I'm caught between a million things and I'm feeling weird? Weird headspace? Not the point, point is that if you're wondering if I died and someone else is ghost writing this but doing an even worse job than I was, that's not what happened I'm just feeling odd.  
> Anyways! One more chapter after this, an epilogue sort of deal, and then it's over!  
> And then I will start on my new fic hopefully. (Teaser? I hope you like the idea of what would have happened if Vex failed that Wisdom save when she read from the evil book.)  
> Also Rare Pair week is in a couple days and I'll be posting some stuff or on my tumblr or both, still debating, but yeah.  
> Anyways, hope you guys liked this 'cause I really did and yeah

Vax crept around to a back window and opened it, then ducked into the shadows and waited. A couple minutes later Vax heard the door slam shut and longer after that saw Scanlan’s upper body lean through the window. There was an ‘oof’ as Scanlan, now wearing black leggings and a black turtleneck with a ski mask fell onto the ground. Vax quickly swept forward and covered his mouth. He looked around before raising a finger to his lips and releasing him.

He helped Scanlan stand and then, settling on the stairs, waved for the shorter man to follow him and delved deeper into the lair of Mr. and Mrs. Briarwood.

 

Vex groaned, “Grog was supposed to wear the bear costume but Pike is still helping him, she’s worried he won’t even make the second fight. What are we going to do?”

Keyleth jumped up first, “I can wear it! I’ve always wanted to be an animal, I can totally do a bear.”

Vex shook her head, “It’s too big for you, you’re not exactly the size of a bear Keyleth.”

Matt stepped forward, “I can help. I can do the noises and fill out the suit a bit more, Keyleth can do the bear part.”

Vex looked over to Percy who was sitting on a bench, cleaning his gun more intensely than she’d ever seen and a dark shadow on his face. “Yeah, yeah do that. Juggle or something. I’ll talk to Percy.”

The two of them rushed off to find the suit and get to work on distracting the audience, leaving Vex to distract Percy. She walked up to him slowly, giving him the time to notice her, and sat down beside him. She waited a moment for him to say something first but he didn’t even look at her.

“Percival,” she said calmly and his hand stilled for a moment. “Who is she?”

“Anna Ripley,” Percy growled and went back to working on his gun.

“That’s a name dear, but it isn’t an answer. Who is she to you?” She touched his cheek gently and he looked at her for the first time, blue eyes meeting her with a pleading look.

“She…she was my tutor. A science tutor my family hired. She had been suggested by the Briarwoods of course. And she,” his focus shifted from her to another time and place entirely, leaving his eyes hollow for a moment while he strayed into memories he hadn’t thought of in ages. “I don’t remember a lot of it to be quite honest. I was younger and she was very good at convincing me to stay quiet. Her…games varied. She was a scientist. I wanted to be a scientist. And she had a great deal of experiments and the first couple weren’t so terrible. They were off of course, never quite feeling like something I should be doing. And they only got worse as time went on. Some of them painful, some of them more mental. There were…other things as well. Unrelated to science. But everything came with a warning. Another sibling’s name attached to it. Tell anyone and Vesper is next. Say anything and I’ll see if pretty little Cassandra wants to be part of your class. It was years before Cassandra saw some bruises or something I couldn’t explain away and convinced my parents to send her away without telling them why. She’s the only one who knew anything about what happened, except for the Briarwoods it seems.”

“Percy,” Vex took his gun and set it aside and instead filled his hands with hers. “I’m so sorry. They must have known…they must have known how it would get to you. I can—”

Percy shook his head, white hair flopping in front of his eyes for a second before Vex pushed it away, “You can’t do anything. What we have to do is stall as long as possible and then beat them. We can’t afford to stray from the plan.”

“Percy, what she did—”

Percy pressed his forehead to Vex’s and took a deep breath which steadied him a little more. “You didn’t have to help me with any of this. I will be forever grateful.”

“I don’t want you to be grateful. Percy you are one of us. Family.” She pulled away, looking very serious for a second, “But not the two of us. Not like that. We’re dating so we don’t fall in family, but you understand what I mean. You would jump into hell to help us, we’re going to do everything we can to help you. We’re going to get your faire back and we’re going to put these fucks in jail. You don’t need to thank us for helping, we’d be doing it even if you didn’t want us to.”

“Thank you,” he whispered anyways.

“Percy!” Cassandra’s voice called out and she rushed forward, holding her blue dress up as she ran to her brother. “I had no idea that they’d bring her, I’m so sorry. I’m the one who talked to the Briarwoods about a shooting competition, I didn’t know—”

Percy stood up, “It’s alright, it’s alright. It’s not your fault. Let’s just focus on what we can do right now. And right now,” his sharp blue eyes glared across the field, locked on to Anna Ripley who was calmly watching him, “right now I can fuck her up.”

Vex slapped his ass as he walked out to the field, where currently two people in a bear costume were juggling and making very good bear noises and it looked oddly realistic. For being two people in a bear costume.

Ripley stepped out with him and the ‘bear’ made a confused noise and dropped two balls, not many people noticed because the two gunslingers were much more interesting. Percy was looking at her with more fire and hate than even hell contained. And Ripley had a teasing smirk and a light in her eye that dared him to come play. And it was bone chilling.

A hush fell over the crowd and slowly the ‘bear’ picked up the balls they had dropped and backed off the field. Percy took his gun from his holster and spun it once. “I am not the same man and I hope you are ready to see that for yourself.”

“I’ve always been very interested in your growth, Percy. Why don’t you show me instead of just talking about it.” She jerked her head to the targets, which were colored glass bottles, coins tied to string and dangling from branches, and a number of other flashy items that moved or were half hidden behind things.

What happened next was amazing. Shots most people would never see again in their lifetime. Things that made even Vex’ahlia, who knew how good Percy was, shocked.

And while it was close the members of Vox Machina who were there to see it all knew Percy could beat her, that there would be no stopping him.

Until there was.

There was cheering in the stands, howling and banging on the wood, stomping, a flag for Whitestone was stuck in the ground, people were jumping on top of each other. An amazing shot. Nobody would have seen it coming.

And Vox Machina was silent.

Percy stood there, looking empty and hollow. Ripley clapped a hand on his shoulder and whispered, “I expected so much more from my student. And in the end you were just ordinary. Maybe you and your sister can come take a job at Whitestone again, I would love to pick up where we left off.” She tapped his cheek with her good hand and still it felt surprisingly cold and wrong. Then she left the field, let them start setting up the next event.

Percy didn’t move until Vex hopped the fence and rushed to him. “Are you okay?” She asked quietly as she slipped her hand in his and began pulling him away. He didn’t answer. “It’s okay, it’s only one event, we have plenty to keep up with. And as long as everything goes according to plan, it won’t even matter.”

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, his throat dry and voice tight. They walked back into the crowd, not many people noticed, Keyleth had captured their attention with shiny magic tricks. “I lost.”

“We’re a team, Percy. It’s not all on you.”

“I asked you all to help me with this and I didn’t even pull my own weight.”

“We would have helped without you asking. There isn’t a specific weight you have to bear, we help each other. And besides,” Vex looked over to Keyleth, “now we all have even more or a reason to fuck her up.”

And when she said that water seemed to fly from Keyleth’s hand and douse Ripley, who scowled in response. “You leave the rest up to us, darling, we’ll make sure it’s handled.”

 

Matt rolled his shoulders and listened to the metal against metal. Heavy armor, he was never a huge fan of it, but then again the joust didn’t really allow anything less. Pike helped boost him up on the horse and Kima handed him the lance. She was straight off the sword fight, an amazing match to watch, though very quick. She destroyed her opponent in record time.

“How’s Grog?” Matt asked as he shifted his grip and rubbed the horse’s neck.

“Almost good to go. It wasn’t as bad as I feared, and well, you know Grog. There isn’t much that will keep him down. He’s already talking about getting his revenge on Kern.”

“Good. Now, let’s hope I don’t fall off the horse.” Matt laughed but it was obvious that he was legitimately worried.

A young man rushed forward and stood in the middle with a white flag in his hand. Matt readied himself and looked across. Beneath that helmet was someone he once considered a friend, or at least someone on his team. But he supposed the Briarwoods had the money to change someone’s mind. The man had still been the main knight at their joust, Matt just hoped he could hold his own.

The white flag swung down and Matt yelled as the horses ran towards each other, “For Emon!” He dropped his lance low, the world moving in slow motion around him, the only thing he could hear was the slamming of hooves on the ground, and then the crack of wood on metal.

The wind was knocked from him, his chest ached, splinters flew through the air, and when he slowed the horse and looked behind him the world picked up speed all at once, making him dizzy and a little bit nauseous.

His opponent’s horse was being held by his squire and a lump of metal on the ground rolled over with a groan. Matt had knocked him off his horse, an automatic win and something rarely ever done.

And then sound came back and Matt had to take his helmet off and cover his ears to handle the enormous amount of cheers. And when they quieted down enough Matt walked over to Ripley and pulled from the collar of his armor a small silk square with the de Rolo crest on it and dropped it in front of the woman. “Percival sends his regards.” And walked off.

 

“I know this isn’t what we came here for,” Vax said as he read the journals over Scanlan’s shoulder, “but we have to take this too. This Ripley person, whoever they are…this is some real fucked up shit.”

“Agreed.” Scanlan turned the page and their blood ran cold.

“That’s Percy’s name,” Vax whispered.

They turned the page again. And again. And again. For most of the rest of the book Percy’s name littered the pages along with numbers and phrases that made no sense. The journals weren’t all in code but sometimes entire pages would be in other languages or wouldn’t make any sense, like she was covering up the worst of her crimes but like any scientist needed to keep notes.

“”I’ll kill her,” Vax growled, but Scanlan dumped all of the journals they’d found into his bag.

“How about we put her away for the rest of her life and maybe someone will kill her in prison. But right now we just have her shit. This isn’t the Briarwoods’ room, we’re not done here.”

 

Almost forty-five minutes of sneaking around later, they found themselves in what looked like the main office.

“Scanlan,” Vax hissed to the bard standing near the door on lookout, “Scanlan I think I found something.” Vax was standing against a wall with his ear pressed against the dark wood.

“What? A bunch of termites or something?” Scanlan rolled his eyes and looked back out into the hallway.

“No, it’s hollow. I just have to find a way to open it.” Vax ran his fingers along a raised border to the wood, looking for some sort of button, but came up empty.

“Then hurry up and open it, we’re wasting time.”

“Help me look, then!” Vax knocked on the wall softly again, hoping for anything.

Scanlan huffed and walked to the huge wooden desk and started touching things, nothing specific just pushing pieces of the desk and pictures and that sort of thing. It was meant to annoy Vax more than anything. Until he pressed one of the bronze flowers on the handle of the drawer and the wall behind them clicked.

Vax dove for Scanlan and took him to the ground with a soft thump. They waited, hearts in their throats, but when Vax finally looked over his shoulder he found that a square in the wall was hanging open about an inch. Their collapse into the ground however was questionable on if it went unnoticed.

They hurried to the crack in the wall, Vax quickly checking it before swinging it all the way open and grabbing papers.

Copies of finances, a book of names, most of which were from books and historical figures (like a bad spy movie), pictures of the faire, all sorts of dirt on the Briarwoods.

It was too good to be true, so easy to find and it was all right there.

And as the thought crossed Scanlan’s mind Vax heard a soft hiss and there was an odd smell.

“Fuck,” he hissed and shoved Scanlan with all his might and started dumping as much as he could into the bag before, at just the right second, he leapt back.

And there was a small explosion in the office, setting Vax’s fancy cloak on fire and also his entire left arm. He dropped to the ground on his right side, the bag under him, and started patting the fire on his arm out while Scanlan stomped on the cloak. Vax hurt but pressed through it and took the cloak off, then grabbed Scanlan by the bicep and yanked him out of the second story window as they heard footsteps coming to the door.

Scanlan landed on Vax, which was technically what Vax had wanted but it didn’t really feel all that great.

“We’ve got to go, _now_ ,” Vax groaned and stood up and started heading toward the car.

Scanlan waited, curled his hands into fists. Vax was in pain and wasn’t moving as fast as he should have been, if anyone came after them Vax would tell him to run and would be at the mercy of whoever caught him. So Scanlan thought if he could hold them off long enough Vax would make it, all he had to do—

Fingers dug into his shoulder, right behind his collarbone, and he yelped in pain, “I said _come on_ ,” Vax growled and quite literally started dragging Scanlan away.

Luckily the flames in the room were a more pressing matter and aided in their getaway, but it would only be a matter of time before the Briarwoods knew. Once they were in the car again and Vax was speeding off into the night Scanlan sent a group text.

_They know, don’t let them leave._

Fifty-two minutes before this Vex had rallied the crowd enough to convince Ripley to volunteer as a target for some more trick shots. She stood against a thick tree and Vex stood quite far away with all of Percy’s arrows in her quiver.

And one right after the other she fired at Ripley, who to her credit stood perfectly still.

Each arrow caught her coat and buried itself in the trunk, just barely missing her flesh each time. The shaft of one was touching her ear when Vex strode back to the tree and Ripley waited for her to start removing the arrows.

“The coat is ruined, I think you should leave it,” Vex’s voice was only loud enough for Ripley to hear. “Percy might want it anyways, I’m sure he can find something to do with it.”

Ripley’s grin turned cold, “He sure is interesting and fun to play with, isn’t he?”

Vex’s mouth twitched but she held back from punching her square in the jaw. She’s leave that sort of thing to Grog. “He’s the best man I’ve ever met. Made every single arrow for me. It’s only because of how perfectly he does everything that I didn’t miss and accidentally land one in your chest. Now move so I can get them back.”

Ripley growled and struggled out of her jacket, tearing the sleeves of her shirt in a few places. And Vex carefully removed her arrows and took the jacket back to Percy. “I’m going to help you burn this later,” she said as she handed it to him.

He smiled and shifted over so she could stand beside him as Grog made his way back to the circle.

The ref called for the match to start and Grog flew at The Hammer, immediately taking him to the ground and starting the pounding. When Kern gathered himself he grabbed Grog and, instead of flipping him, headbutted him from underneath the giant of a man, and boxed his ears.

Grog backed up, looking for an opening, and when he found one he went for it. Punching him in the kidney’s twice and then going for the family jewels with his knee.

But as harsh as the fight started it was another long one. Drawing it out, neither willing to go down, and then Vex watched Grog’s eyes close for a second too long again and he started to tip back. And then they snapped open and he took two more hits. Kern hit him in the gut again and Grog’s eyes rolled back and Pike stepped forward, but before anyone called it Grog was lurching forward, fully awake again, and lunging at Kern. Two hits and a headbutt and Kern was out. They waited a moment, half expecting him to get up and star wailing on Grog, but nothing happened.

“Grog Strongjaw takes the match!” The ref called and another flag for Emon was stabbed into the ground.

Grog grabbed Kern and carried him over his shoulder to Ripley, who was now standing with the Briarwoods who looked a little tense, where he threw the ugly man at her feet. “Anyone who messes with my friends has only one thing to look forward to.”

Pike ran forward and Grog lifted his chin, expecting her to ask how he was, but she passed him and went to Kern. Grog frowned, very confused, until he saw Pike ‘accidentally’ elbow Ripley quite hard to get to Kern.

When someone came to help her she got up and went to Grog, checking over his wounds and talking to him.

Delilah subtly looked down at her phone and touched her husband’s arm. He leaned in and she whispered in his ear and when he pulled away they began gathering their things. And while the odd behavior hadn’t been particularly noticeable there wasn’t much that Vex missed.

And a few moments later all of their phones buzzed, but Vex knew she was the only one who would be able to look without getting in serious trouble, maybe Percy. And what she saw was not good.

“We’ve got to keep them busy, draw out the closing. The second they can they’re going to be gone. We’ve got to figure something out,” she said to Percy.

Matt and Keyleth walked over, smiling and laughing but stopped cold when they saw Vex’s face. She told them what Sam had texted and Matt nodded, “Right. I’ll stall Uriel, you guys stall everyone else.” He slipped off into the crowd and Vex looked around.

“Well? What’s the plan?” She asked. She wasn’t sure how long they’d have to stall but things weren’t looking good for them.

“We need another event. A big one. One they can’t say no to.” Percy saw Vex start to tell him no, that he shouldn’t go out and shoot again, but he shook his head, “They already beat me, they won’t want to play that again. Something else.”

“Kima was great with the swordfight, what about using her again?”

“No, it’s us they’re angry with. It has to be personal with us. And they have to think they’ll win it quickly enough to get the hell out of here before Vax and Scanlan are back.” Percy frowned and then Pike crossed in front of them. Small, smiling, a bright light in the sea of really dirty people and quite a bit of blood on the field. “Someone get Pike her mace and shield, she’s going to fight Sylas.”

 

It was difficult to convince him to come down and fight Pike, but her last name wasn’t Trickfoot for nothing, and after quite a bit of taunting, riling up the crowd, and putting the entire tournament on the line, he finally descended to the ring. He pulled a huge blade from his back and held it like it was nothing. Percy had a sinking suspicion it wasn’t as dull as Kima’s had been and it was much more effective than it should have been for a game, but there wasn’t really another choice right now.

And while the fight wasn’t dirty it wasn’t exactly fair. Sylas sung without holding back and the few times he had hit Pike were rough and Vex could see she had a bloody lip at the very least. But Pike was giving back almost as good as she got, catching his sides a few times with her mace, denting the armor on the second hit.

He swung down at her head violently but she dodged and the sword glanced off her shield as she moved. She pressed back, swinging her weapon at the center of his chest. Without knowing Pike one would say this was a very uneven fight, which was why Sylas had taken it.

Even after seeing Pike win every arm wrestling match thrown at her it was hard to think a man like Sylas would have any trouble with her. He was huge, tall and broad with heavy dark armor and a sword that was longer than Pike was tall. She was short, her armor was bright and her holy symbol was clear on it, she still bore the wrap around her arm that marked her as medic, and the smile she’d been sporting all day was like staring into the sun if you looked at it too long. She looked terribly innocent and soft.

And now, her lips bloodied, her eyes set on her target, a yell ripping from her lips with every swing. She was fast, she was accurate, and holy fuck was she strong. And at one point she yelled, “Eat a bag of dicks, Briarwood!” which unsettled him enough to dent his armor like that. Pike may have been the light in Vox Machina but she certainly wasn’t innocent. She was as much a part of the Shits as any of them.

She hit him again, this time hard enough to send him stumbling back, and again, knocking him to his knees.

And the ref called the fight before she could sing one more time.

Sylas was slow to walk away. He had murder in his eyes and Vex almost wondered if they should have let them get away. But they’d wasted a lot of time and Uriel hadn’t even said anything yet. She just hoped those two came through.

Uriel was halfway through his speech about how the tournament had been a bonding experience, about faires like this working together to bring people into the experience, about how people like them made it all possible. A bunch of bullshit. It seemed Matt had gotten through to him and convinced him to draw it out. The Briarwoods wouldn’t leave before the official announcement. Especially not when they were standing beside him in front of every single person there.

Which only made it more wonderful when the police arrived and arrested the two of them.

Ripley began pushing her way through the crowd, trying to get the hell out of there before they found her, until out of nowhere Keyleth appeared and clotheslined the fuck out of her. After which Ripley was promptly cuffed as well and taken away with the Briarwoods.

Vax and Scanlan ran onto the field as they were walking the three back to the cop cars.

“Is it safe to say you found what you were looking for?” Vex asked and hugged her brother tightly.

“Oh hell yeah. Also we burned down at least part of their house.” Scanlan looked so proud of himself and it was hard not to smile at the idea of the Briarwoods’ mansion in flames.

Keyleth took her turn to hug Vax and kissed him. “Idiot,” she said quietly and he just laughed.

Uriel came over a few minutes into their reunion, everyone taking turns to hug everyone and congratulate each other. Keyleth was telling Scanlan all about what they had done, most of his interest was on Pike’s near death match with Sylas. Everyone fell silent as he entered the group.

He had a very serious look on his face as he looked them over. Then it broke into a comfortable smile, “I believe I have you all to thank. The best faire in all of Tal’Dorei stays with me thanks to all of you, and even better than ever thanks to your family, Percy. Speaking of which,” he held out a folded piece of paper, “I believe this belongs to you.”

Percy reached out with a shaky hand and took it. He opened it and read it over quickly.

The deed to the Whitestone Fairgrounds. “Thank you,” he whispered and looked up at Uriel who smiled fondly back at him. Percy cleared his throat and said, “Your faire won’t be the best for long. I believe you have some very good competition now.”

“Yes, well perhaps we will see when we do this tournament again next year?”

“I-I would like that.” Percy looked around at his friends, “Though you do have quite the team here.”

“Oh, I quit,” Vex’ahlia said without pause and looked at Percy with her chin held high, “I hope you’re accepting applications for archers. I’m looking for a job.”

“Me too!” Keyleth said from Vax’s side, “but only for the summer, I’m going home for the winter this year.”

Vax cleared his throat, “Same here. I’m going back to spend some time with her family too.”

Grog cracked his neck, “I’ve been thinking about going somewhere new, nobody here wants to lose to me anymore.”

Pike pounded one fist into the palm of her other hand, “Yeah, I wanna train with some new people, beef up my skills some more.”

“I think I’d be quite interested in a new place, I’ve got some new voices I want to try out that might work best a little farther north.” Matt had a wide grin.

“And you know I’m going wherever Pike goes, so you better have space for a bard because I’m pretty shitty at everything else.” Scanlan winked playfully.

Percy looked over his friends with new eyes. Of course he had hoped they’d all stay together, but it hadn’t been his expectation. He thought they’d all want to keep this job or that they’d rather not work for him. But here they all were, ready to move, to uproot their lives, just to make sure things stayed the same. Well, almost the same. Only now they’d be doing it in the faire he grew up in, and that was so different.

“I think I’ve got a few openings.” He smiled and Vex’s fingers slid between his own. “Why don’t we go see the place out for ourselves?”

Vex waved at everyone to follow her, “Yeah, let’s go check out our new home.”


	8. I Would Call It An Epilogue But It's More Like Chapter One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Year Later

In a year a lot had changed, but also strangely not much at all.

Percy and Vex had been revamping Whitestone (though in reality it was mostly Cassandra who was also double majoring at college and now dating a lovely young woman who just so happened to be Scanlan’s daughter). They had even closed it over the fall and most of winter to make it their own. When they reopened for Winter’s Crest everyone who had loved Whitestone before only loved it more.

Scanlan had taken his time off to be with his daughter, Kaylie. He hadn’t found out about her until after they had shut Whitestone down and he was looking for a temp job to keep him busy. The way he told the story it sounded like Kaylie wanted to kill him when they first met.

Pike and Grog used their time to become a little bit of a travelling band. They spent some time working for Uriel in Emon but soon moved on to another faire. And another. And another. They were a hit everywhere they went, became well known in the community. And eventually people were begging they fight each other, that it would be the fight of a century. They stepped in the ring, clasped hands, and held them high in the air (in doing so Grog was dangling Pike about four inches off the ground). Everyone else was disappointed they wouldn’t fight each other, but the both of them considered it a huge victory. “The world wouldn’t be able to take two monsters like us fighting,” Pike had said over drinks that night.

Vax and Keyleth had gone back to Keyleth’s small home town. It was out in the country and Vax was surprised at how much like a family everyone was. It was exactly the opposite of any life he’d known. It was gentle, every single person loved him even if they didn’t know him well, and it was like having a real family. Of course his friends were his family but they were more like crazy siblings, one of them was his crazy sibling. Being there with Keyleth had been more like having a lot of mothers and fathers.

Keyleth had been excited to be home and more excited to see that Vax seemed to like it too. She had taken up a kind of leadership position in the area. They all looked to her on what to do next. And while of course she loved them and she wanted to help them, there was a part of her that itched under her skin to get back. To leave.

Matt worked on Whitestone as well, hanging around instead of running off to the wide world. He had also taken up voice acting and it had taken off, he was mostly working in games. He loved it and he was extremely good at it. All those voices he had been working on through all of his odd jobs at Emon were finding their way into games that the rest of them played. It was an odd experience to turn a corner in a game and hear their DM talking to them.

Kynan, the boy who had been working with the Briarwoods, was now working for Percy thanks to Vax. And he was good, happy to work, happy to learn. He was jumpy, always seemed a little on edge, but he was a good kid and Percy liked him a lot.

Percy was in a better place than ever. Everywhere he turned something was going right. It was such a strange turn of events from how the rest of his life had been going. Sometimes he woke up in the middle of the night, panic seeping through him at the idea it had all been a dream. And then the arms around his waist would tighten, pulling him back, her cold nose would press against his neck, and she would murmur something in a language he didn’t understand. She did that when she was half asleep, called him lovely things in a language he didn’t know. And he would relax, breathe deeply, and fall asleep in her arms again.

Whitestone was his dream. Vex was his dream.

But it was also hers.

Vex had moved around a lot as a kid. A few times because of her father. A lot with her brother after they’d run away. And while she had an apartment, she had her friends, she had her job at the faire, she had never really felt like she had a home. And the fact that Percy had given her that, not just asking her to move in with him, but also by loving her and giving her a place to pour her hard work into and to watch grow because of things she done, it was the most precious thing in her life. He was the most precious thing in her life.

And most people found their domestic life quite amusing. Percy had journals filled with sketches of her, his social media was more pictures of her than anything else, and to him everything she did and everything she was was nothing short of art and perfection. And Vex spent much of her time in his workshop, they built all sorts of things together. Well, Vex handed him tools he wanted, it was more just to be close to him. She made him playlists, she made sure he got enough rest and didn’t let him forget to eat. But more importantly, more important than anything else, they just loved each other.

The gang got together about once a month to play DnD, they didn’t get to see each other as often as they had before but they made sure to try their best to see each other at least once a month for a few hours. And it was the night where Matt described a beautiful wedding between Marisha and one of the NPCs. It had been lovely and heartwarming and perfect, as perfect as an imaginary wedding could be.

And it made Percy think.

It was two weeks later when Percy, with no warning (not that it was unusual), kissed Vex with all the love he possessed. And Vex kissed him back exactly the same way.

They clung to each other, neither ready to pull away, but Percy was going to follow through. He had been so scared that every night he held back, he just couldn’t do it. But not tonight. Not when it was so beautiful outside. Not when it was so perfect.

“Take a walk with me,” he said quietly, not wanting to break the moment, and slipped his hand in hers.

They walked quietly through the faire. It was the last night before they opened up and they had stayed late, making sure everything was just perfect. And perfect it was.

Percy led them through the wooded area Vex loved so much and up to a hill behind it where they could look over all of their hard work.

When he stopped he let go of her hand and, without turning to her, said, “I love you.”

She hummed happily, “I love you,” and wrapped her arms around him. “Is something wrong?”

He almost laughed. “Nothing is wrong. Everything is so wonderful right now. It’s not like anything I could have imagined. And it is at least partially due to you,” He turned and brushed his thumb against her cheek, “the light of my life.”

One could interpret what Vex did as a giggle, but the word never fit quite right for the kind of person she was, but it was close enough for the moment. “You’re so sweet, darling.” She kissed him lightly on the lips.

“I…I got you something.”

She leaned back in his arms and raised an eyebrow, “Oh did you?”

He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck, “Yes. It’s not an arrow or anything. I’m not even sure you’ll like it. But I wanted to give you what you are to me.” He immediately regretted saying that because how could he give her anything like her? She was-she was everything.

She saw his mind turning and ran her hands up and down his chest, “I can’t wait. What is it?”

He took a deep breath and looked up. He squinted and searched the sky, then pointed. “That.”

Vex followed his finger and stared up at the sky. They were far out of the city and it left the night sky filled with stars. But there was nothing else, not even a cloud. “Darling, I know you’re rich but I’m not sure you can buy me all of space. Though I like that you tried.”

He laughed, feeling a million times lighter because even through Vex’s jokes she sounded so sincere. “No, not all of space, just a piece of it.” He took Vex’s hand and carefully pointed her finger to the right place and said, “That star is yours. I named it Vex’ahlia. And it’s yours. Forever shining down on this world and all the others.”

She was quiet for a long time, to the point where Percy thought he had really fucked up, but then he heard a sniffle.

“Vex?”

She turned to look at him, tears running down her cheeks. She was beautiful even when she cried. Well. Maybe not technically, she didn’t look like she was on a commercial. But she looked like Vex and that was beautiful enough. “I love you.”

He smiled and took a step away from her, making her frown and furrow her eyebrows in confusion. And then he went down on one knee which only made Vex cry harder.

“Through everything I’ve been through and every person I’ve met you are the best thing that has happened to me. I have never had faith in the gods but…I have always had faith in you. And if I could tell you what it was like to have religion it would have to be something like this, unconditional, overwhelming, love. You are more than the world to me. You are every star in the sky. And I love you. And from the moment we met I knew that somehow I was going to spend my life with you. I just never thought I would get to do it like this. Will you marry me? Because every morning when I wake up that’s all I want to ask. Every time I see you shooting arrows, every time I see you brush your hair, every time you I see you with my scarf, every time I look at you all I want to do is ask if you’ll be with me for the rest of our lives.”

The answer was obvious even if there were no words that said it. Vex dropped to her knees and crushed him with a kiss. And up on the hill, Vex under her star and Percy under his, they made love.

And days later they were married.

And for the rest of their time all was well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it folks! I hope you liked it. I'm sorry it took longer than expected, I just moved and am starting school and also was focused on Rare Pair week, but it's finished now. And I really liked working on it and I hope you liked reading it. Thanks for all the support and the kudos and comments, I read every one and they always make me smile.  
> Maybe in a week or so you'll see a Dark Perc'ahlia AU that you'll wanna check out that's also by me.  
> Anyways, I'm bad at endings and finishing things up so I'm just gonna go. See you guys around


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